1. Computers for Executives Using Functions By IMRAN MUGHAL Press F5 to begin

2. Objectives After working through the materials you will be able to: Get Help from Excel on a range of issues, including how to use functions and other commands Understand an use a wide range of different functions in Excel, including arithmetic, text, statistical,utility and financial functions

3. Menu 1. Getting Help from Excel Getting Help from Excel 2. Introduction to Functions Introduction to Functions 3. Time Functions Time Functions 4. Utility Functions Utility Functions 5. Look- Up Tables Look- Up Tables 6. Logical Functions Logical Functions 7. Other Functions Other Functions This presentation consists of 7 self- study sections. Click on the section you wish to study. At the end of some sections there is a short task.

4. Getting Help from Excel From this point on in the module you will need to consult with Excel help files on a regular basis. To get well-focussed help from Excel you need to turn off the office assistant. Click on Options and de-select the tick bock for “Use the Office Assistant”

5. The Excel Help Files Now press F1, and these help files appear. You have a full Excel manual This can be accessed via: Contents Answer Wizard Index

6. Example of a Help File This is an example of one of the help topics. This can be found in “Creating Formulas”, then “Entering Formulas”, then “How formulas create values”

7. Simple Functions in Excel A function can be thought of as a tool for doing a specific task. For example, instead of typing in a string of additions: A1+A2+A3+A4, we can use the SUM function: SUM(A1:A4)

8. Types of Functions CategoryFunction examples Purpose Time NOW( ) WEEKDAY Provides dates and times etc. Maths EVEN RAND( ) Calculation Tools Statistical AVERAGE COUNT Summary of Data Database DMIN DMAX Selection and manipulation of data Financial PMT PV Monetary and financial formulae Logical AND, OR IF To make decisions

9. Time Functions Two interesting functions are: NOW() This yields the current date and time WEEKDAY (Date) This yields a number corresponding to the date input 1=Sunday, 2=Monday, 3=Tuesday etc.

10. Time Functions We can use the function TEXT to extract the day of the week: =TEXT( NOW(), “dddd”)

11. Time Functions There are many more functions to investigate In the HELP menu, Try looking up: DAY NETWORKDAYs YEARFRAC

12. Utility Functions 1 These functions are useful in telling you information about the data in the spreadsheet cells COUNT this counts how many cells in the range contain numbers COUNTA this counts how many cells within a particular range contain some sort of information COUNTBLANK this counts how many cells within a particular range are blank

13. Counting Cells 1. COUNT(A1: D4) gives: 2. COUNTA(A1:D4) gives: 3. COUNTBLANK(A1:D4) gives: Before you go on, work out the answers to the three functions below:

14. Counting Cells 1. COUNT(A1: D4) gives: 10 2. COUNTA(A1:D4) gives: 14 3. COUNTBLANK(A1:D4) gives: 2 ANSWERS

15. Utility Functions 2 These functions are useful in telling you information about the data in specific spreadsheet cells. They return TRUE or FALSE ISBLANK tells you whether a specific cell is empty ISNUMBER tells you whether a specific cell contains a numerical entry ISTEXT Tells you whether a particular cell contains text

16. What’s in the cell? ISBLANK(D4) gives: ISNUMBER(B1) gives: ISTEXT(A4) gives: Before you go on, work out the answers to the three functions below:

17. What’s in the cell? ISBLANK(D4) gives: FALSE ISNUMBER(B1) gives: TRUE ISTEXT(A4) gives: TRUE ANSWERS

18. Look Up Tables Using a Look Up is one of the most useful features of Excel. This allows you to select from of a list of options using a particular value as a reference This is exactly like “looking up” a definition of a word in a dictionary, or a telephone number in a directory.

19. Look Up Tables The simplest of the functions to use is LOOKUP. This has the syntax: LOOKUP(cell, range) For example, LOOKUP(A1,K2:L5) looks up the value stored in A1 in the table located in the block of cells K2 – L5

20. Look Up Tables For example: A company sell 4 different sizes of roofing slate: A, B,C, D, E Costs per slate are given in the look-up table opposite We read off the cost for D, by looking up the value in the table SizeCost A£0.45 B£0.70 C£0.95 D£1.10 E£1.25

21. Look Up Tables The contents of the look-up table is place in cells B3 to C7 In cell B10 we have a type of slate for which we need to know the cost In cell C10 we put: =LOOKUP(B10, B3:C7)

22. The LOOKUP function The other use of this function is to look up a cost in a table to find an amount For example if we are willing to spend £1.00 per slate, what is the best quality that we can afford? LOOKUP(B10,B3:C7) The answer is C because as Excel reads down the table that is the best quality for the price.

23. The LOOKUP function The table must be in alphabetical or numerical order There are two columns of figures We look down column 1, find the and then read off the value in column 2

24. VLOOKUP VLOOKUP is an extension of the idea, allowing you to create blocks of cells which contain different lookup values for different circumstances

25. VLOOKUP The simplest format for VLOOKUP is VLOOKUP(cell, range, column number) This looks up the value required in the first column of table, and reads the value from the column specified VLOOKUP (B10, B3:D7, 3) will give the New Price, by looking up D in the first column, and reading across to column 3

26. HLOOKUP HLOOKUP has the same kind of structure, except that the table is formatted horizontally instead of vertically Format:HLOOKUP(cell, table, row) HLOOKUP(B10, C2:G6, 4) will give the 2001 price for the slate

27. Naming Cells and Ranges We have seen previously that it is possible to label cells with names. It is equally possible to label ranges of cells in the same way Highlight the cells Click on here and insert a name

28. Using Name Ranges in Formulae The highlighted area of the table has been called Slates In the cell we type: VLOOKUP(B11, Slates, 2) This gives the old price

29. Costing of Fabric The Functions Example spreadsheet contains a worksheet called dresses. You should now create the lookup formulae for this page. Action Point

30. Costing of Fabric The table at cells B14:F20 should be renamed dresses, or some other suitable name.

31. Costing of Fabric =VLOOKUP(C3, Dresses, 3) =VLOOKUP(C3, Dresses, 5) =G3+G4 ANSWERS

32. Costing of Fabric =VLOOKUP(C3, Dresses, 2) * C5 =VLOOKUP(C3, Dresses, 4) * C5 ANSWERS

33. Logical Functions 1 IF This is a very important function, as it allows us to make conditional statements. The Function has the structure: IF(condition, statement 1, statement 2) If the condition is satisfied, statement 1 is executed, otherwise statement 2 is executed. For example, IF(A2>40, “Pass”,”Fail”)

34. Logical Functions 2 AND and OR These functions are important conditional test tools, which allow us to combine events: To test whether A1>0 and B1>0, we would use the construction: AND(A1>0, B1>0) if both were true the AND function would yield a TRUE result. OR(A1>0,B1>0) yields a true result if either A1>0, B1>0 or both A1>0 and B1>0.

35. Putting it together: Look at the function: IF(OR(A1<0,B1<0),”One is negative”,A1*B1) This tests whether either A1 or B1 is negative, and if so, puts the a message in the cell to that effect. On the other hand, if both are positive, the two values are multiplied together and the answer put in the cell.

36. Sales Returns The Functions Examples spreadsheet has a worksheet called Sales Returns giving the performance figures of five salespeople during 2000 and 2001; you are asked to create formulae to test a variety of conditions. Action Point NB Average of the individual sales person NB Average of the whole team

37. Sales Returns Solution 1 =AVERAGE(B5:B9)=AVERAGE(C5:C9) ANSWERS

38. Sales Returns Solution 2 =IF(AVERAGE(B5:C5)>70000,”Yes”,”No” ANSWERS

39. Sales Returns Solution 3 =if(AND(B5>B$11,C5>C$11),”Yes”,”No”) =if(OR(B5<B$11,C5<C$11),”Yes”,”No”) Note the use of absolute cell referencing when referring to B11 and C11, in order that when copied, these cells remain fixed. ANSWERS

40. More Functions Excel contains literally hundreds of functions, some of which are quite similar to, and may of which are very different from the ones in this lecture. In particular, as you look through the Excel help files, you will notice that we have been using only one form of these functions; each one has many variants.

41. Text Functions CONCATENATE This is a function used to glue together two or more pieces of text as output in a cell CONCATENATE(“The answer is “, C5) If the numerical value of cell C5 is 3.142, then the text created would say: The answer is 3.142 An alternative is to use the ampersand sign: & =“The answer is “ & C5

42. Text Functions MID This function reads a piece of text and extracts part of it. The format is: Mid( text, start, number of letters) For example, suppose the cell A5 contained the word “Spreadsheet” Mid(A5,3,5) would yield the word “reads”

43. Statistical Functions We have already used some of these functions: MINgives the minimum value from a range, MAXgives the maximum value from a range SUMsums a range of values STDEVreturns the standard deviation AVERAGE returns the average of the values e.g. MAX(C2:C40),SUM(A1:D300) etc.

44. Financial Functions DB This function calculates the depreciation of an asset for the fixed-declining depreciation period. The format is DB(initial cost, salvage, life, period) For example: DB( 5000, 1000, 10, 3) calculates the amount that needs to be written off in year 3 of a car bought for £5000, and expected to have a salvage value of £1000 at the end of 10 years

45. Financial Functions PMT This function calculates the payment for a loan based on constant payments at constant interest rate Format: PMT(int. rate, no. of payments, pres. value) For example: PMT(8%/12, 12, 10000) calculates the monthly payments on a loan of £10000 that must be paid back in 12 months at a rate of 8% per annum.

46. More Functions There are literally hundreds more functions within Excel, some of which you will encounter in the Activity which follows However, if you think of a task you want to do, then use the Answer wizard. In the example that follows, the question posed was: “I want to sum a range of values when a particular condition is met”

47. More Functions This was the result. Note that a range of possible functions is suggested. In fact the SUMIF function would be the one to use in this case.