Introduction to Spreadsheets (Part Three)

The second point to notice is that the standard mathermatical operators are not all the same within an Excel spreadsheet. Addition and subtration use the same symbols, but division and multiplication use the forward slash and astrix.

Using Functions
Excel has a number of built in functions, in fact quite a few functions. We will look at five specific functions and their purpose, but remember there are lots more! The diagram on the left shows five values, with a simple formula at the bottom to add these values together. This is quite acceptable, but how long would it take to type in the formula to add up a hundred, or two hundred numbers within a column. When we have a situation like this, we can use the sum function.

All the functions we will look at follow the same syntax in the way they are written.

=Name of function(Range of cells)

As previously mentioned, functions always start with an equals sign. This is followed by the name of the funtion, then within parenthisis the range of cells. Look how simple the sum function was to write using the example on the left. Even if we had to add up a hundred, two hundred numbers, the function would be quick and easy to write.