Excel workbook 160 exercises with solutions and comments

Excel is the most popular and widely used productivity software in all business environments, and it is an irreplaceable companion in ordinary work as in the analysis of large amounts of complex data Nevertheless, the majority of users knows and uses only a very limited number of features, often in an elementary way This workbook shows in practice the use of a wide variety of formulas, functions and features (like charts, pivot tables, macros or the Solver add-in) that allow to effectively and professionally work with Excel The workbook starts with the basics and gets progressively to deal with very complex cases It is a valuable support for college students, professionals and managers who want to learn the basics or to improve the knowledge of Excel up to an advanced level DigitaBook format includes the digital edition of the book with all the initial and solved files available to carry out the exercises and check the solutions Over 80 exercises are commented, to highlight the basic concepts and clarify the most complex ones Massimo Ballerini, Maria Chiara Debernardi, Davide Del Corno, Maurizio De Pra are lecturers for Computer Science courses at Università Bocconi in Milan Alberto Clerici is director of ITEC (IT Education Center) at the same University THIRD EDITION EXCEL WORKBOOK 160 Exercises with Solutions and Comments M Ballerini · A Clerici M C Debernardi · D Del Corno M De Pra Copyright © 2015, 2017, 2021 EGEA S.p.A Via Salasco, – 20136 Milano Tel 02-58365751 – Fax 02-58365753 egea.edizioni@unibocconi.it – www.egeaeditore.it All rights reserved, including but not limited to translation, total or partial adaptation, reproduction, and communication to the public by any means on any media (including microfilms, films, photocopies, electronic or digital media), as well as electronic information storage and retrieval systems For more information or permission to use material from this text, see the website www.egeaeditore.it Given the characteristics of Internet, the publisher is not responsible for any changes of address and contents of the websites mentioned Third edition: February 2021 ISBN Domestic Edition 978-88-31322-08-9 ISBN International Edition 978-88-31322-08-9 ISBN Digital International Edition 978-88-31322-09-6 Table of Contents PREFACE PLAN OF THE WORKBOOK SECTION EXERCISES UNIT EXCEL BASICS EXERCISE 1.1 - Quarterly sales EXERCISE 1.2 - Four elections EXERCISE 1.3 - Income EXERCISE 1.4 - Cinema EXERCISE 1.5 - Courses EXERCISE 1.6 - Population by age EXERCISE 1.7 - Sales data EXERCISE 1.8 - Exams EXERCISE 1.9 - Balance sheet EXERCISE 1.10 - TV shows EXERCISE 1.11 - Cigarettes EXERCISE 1.12 - Families EXERCISE 1.13 - Beer and wine EXERCISE 1.14 - Three elections EXERCISE 1.15 - Athletics EXERCISE 1.16 - Bills EXERCISE 1.17 - Turnover analysis EXERCISE 1.18 - US and foreign sales EXERCISE 1.19 - Rainfall EXERCISE 1.20 - UFO EXERCISE 1.21 - Accidents EXERCISE 1.22 - Music sales EXERCISE 1.23 - Seven dwarfs EXERCISE 1.24 - Expenses EXERCISE 1.25 - Three musketeers EXERCISE 1.26 - Murders EXERCISE 1.27 - City council EXERCISE 1.28 - Parliamentary groups EXERCISE 1.29 - Regional chief towns EXERCISE 1.30 - Population (summary exercise) UNIT FROM SIMPLE FUNCTIONS TO NESTED FUNCTIONS EXERCISE 2.1 - Home loans EXERCISE 2.2 - Internet users EXERCISE 2.3 - Top sellers EXERCISE 2.4 - Alphabet Inc EXERCISE 2.5 - Show EXERCISE 2.6 - Productivity EXERCISE 2.7 - Customer care EXERCISE 2.8 - Istat EXERCISE 2.9 - Planets (summary exercise) EXERCISE 2.10 - Home Sweet Home (summary exercise) UNIT MATH FUNCTIONS AND ADVANCED CHARTS EXERCISE 3.1 - Drugstores EXERCISE 3.2 - Men at work EXERCISE 3.3 - Car Insurances EXERCISE 3.4 - Exam EXERCISE 3.5 - Clothing Store EXERCISE 3.6 - Beauty Business EXERCISE 3.7 - Cosmetics Shop EXERCISE 3.8 - International Education EXERCISE 3.9 - Dinner with classmates (summary exercise) EXERCISE 3.10 - Wages (summary exercise) UNIT FINANCIAL FUNCTIONS AND WHAT-IF ANALYSIS EXERCISE 4.1 - Emerald EXERCISE 4.2 - Smart Courses EXERCISE 4.3 - Credits and debts EXERCISE 4.4 - Cloth Paradise EXERCISE 4.5 - Discount on rates EXERCISE 4.6 - Smart Investments Bank EXERCISE 4.7 - Garden Center (summary exercise) EXERCISE 4.8 - GreenBio (summary exercise) EXERCISE 4.9 - PhotoMagic (summary exercise) EXERCISE 4.10 - Bright Sun (summary exercise) UNIT TEXT FUNCTIONS AND PIVOT TABLES EXERCISE 5.1 - IBAN codes EXERCISE 5.2 - Names EXERCISE 5.3 - Superstore EXERCISE 5.4 - Beauty EXERCISE 5.5 - Europe sales EXERCISE 5.6 - Erasmus EXERCISE 5.7 - Vitanic EXERCISE 5.8 - Office Line EXERCISE 5.9 - Greenwich Village (summary exercise) EXERCISE 5.10 - Black-yellow supporters (summary exercise) UNIT MANAGING DATES AND TIMES EXERCISE 6.1 - Two hours EXERCISE 6.2 - Timesheet EXERCISE 6.3 - Date check EXERCISE 6.4 - Linguistic certifications EXERCISE 6.5 - Techno Building EXERCISE 6.6 - Hotel Booking EXERCISE 6.7 - My Friends EXERCISE 6.8 - Temporary workers EXERCISE 6.9 - Payments (summary exercise) EXERCISE 6.10 - Stationery (summary exercise) UNIT LOOKUP & REFERENCE FUNCTIONS, DATA PROTECTION EXERCISE 7.1 - Rocky Sports EXERCISE 7.2 - Property Evaluation EXERCISE 7.3 - Copy shop EXERCISE 7.4 - Paper and related EXERCISE 7.5 - Purchasing Department EXERCISE 7.6 - DoReMi EXERCISE 7.7 - Thinkstore EXERCISE 7.8 - Print Service EXERCISE 7.9 - European University EXERCISE 7.10 - Consulteam EXERCISE 7.11 - Candidates selection EXERCISE 7.12 - MagicWood EXERCISE 7.13 - Phone calls (summary exercise) EXERCISE 7.14 - Box Office Star (summary exercise) EXERCISE 7.15 - Sunshine Events (summary exercise) UNIT MACROS AND ELEMENTS OF VBA EXERCISE 8.1 - Students EXERCISE 8.2 - Tickets EXERCISE 8.3 - Product list EXERCISE 8.4 - Stores EXERCISE 8.5 - Household linens EXERCISE 8.6 - Arithmetic Comments and functions unit 11 EXERCISE 11.1 - Premium Bonds Tools needed to solve the exercise: TODAY, COUPPCD, COUPDAYBS, COUPDAYS, YIELD, COUPNCD, IFERROR, XIRR functions, simple formulas (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), conditional formatting EXERCISE 11.2 - Coupon&Coupon Tools needed to solve the exercise: TBILLYIELD, XIRR, TODAY functions, simple formulas (addition, subtraction), conditional formatting EXERCISE 11.3 - FRN Tools needed to solve the exercise: VLOOKUP, YEAR, COUPPCD, COUPDAYBS, COUPDAYS, COUPNCD, XIRR functions, simple formulas (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), conditional formatting EXERCISE 11.4 - Reverse floater Tools needed to solve the exercise: COUPPCD, COUPDAYBS, COUPDAYS, COUPNCD, VLOOKUP, IF, YEAR, XIRR functions, simple formulas (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) EXERCISE 11.5 - Capital budgeting Tools needed to solve the exercise: NPV, IRR, XNPV, XIRR, VLOOKUP, YEAR, SUM functions, data tables EXERCISE 11.6 - Super leasing Tools needed to solve the exercise: PMT, PPMT, IPMT, IF functions, simple formulas (addition, multiplication), data validation, worksheet protection EXERCISE 11.7 - Stock performance (commented) Tools needed to solve the exercise: Data import from text file, AVERAGE, MEDIAN, STDEV.S, VAR.S, MIN, MAX, KURT, SKEW functions, simple formulas (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), Data analysis Add-in, chart creation and customization Comment point Data in the Exercise 11.7 - Stock.txt file are delimited by a tab, have the comma as a decimal separator, the point as thousands separator, and the dates set with aaaa-mm-dd format To import data in the Stock worksheet, use the Get External Data/From Text command: to import them correctly, it is necessary to set the tab as a separator (step 2), that the separators used in the file are the comma as decimal separator and the point as thousands separator (Advanced option in step 3), and that the Date field is set with the format “AMD” (step 3) Comment point To avoid display errors in the chart, it is advisable to create the chart starting from the selection of the Adj close field cells, and only later to set the Date field as horizontal axis labels (sometimes the dates, being numbers, are considered by Excel as a second series) Comment point The functions to use to create the descriptive statistics are AVERAGE, MEDIAN, STDEV.S, VAR.S, MIN, MAX, KURTOSIS, SKEW: in all the function only one argument must be set, specifying the cell range to be used The text of the exercise specifies that data at our disposal are a sample of all the historical quotes: for this reason, the function STDEV.S and VAR.C have been used instead of STDEV.P and VAR.S, useful when data represent the entire population Comment point The Data analysis tool (installed and enabled in the Excel Options) allows selecting many of mathematical and statistical analysis tools After selecting the worksheet where the data are located to be analyzed (in this case the Stock worksheet), use the Data analysis command in the Data tab, then select the Descriptive Statistics tool In the Descriptive Statistics window, it is necessary to set the input range ($E$2:$E$6814 corresponding to the values of the Adj Close field select the cells “Grouped by columns” option, specify that the output should be produced in a new worksheet, and select the Summary statistics option Data are saved in a new worksheet, to be renamed according to the instructions Comment point The simple moving average is the arithmetic mean of the values to use: as each value represents the stock price on a particular day, the average is calculated, with the AVERAGE function, using 30 values in the case of the 30 days simple moving average and 90 values in the case of the 90 days simple moving average Comment point Also, for this chart it is advisable to set the values of the Date field later, as the horizontal axis labels EXERCISE 11.8 - Stock analysis Tools needed to solve the exercise: Data import from text file, AVERAGE, STDEV.S functions, simple formulas (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), chart creation and customization EXERCISE 11.9 - Regression Tools needed to solve the exercise: Data import from text file, VLOOKUP, IFERROR, AVERAGE, STDEV.S, COVARIANCE.S, CORREL, SLOPE, INTERCEPT, RSQ functions, chart creation and customization EXERCISE 11.10 - Market Analysis (commented) Tools needed to solve the exercise: COUPPCD, COUPDAYBS, COUPDAYS, COUPNCD, IF, XIRR, XNPV, VLOOKUP, IFERROR, AVERAGE, MEDIAN, STDEV.S, KURT, SKEW, SLOPE, INTERCEPT, RSQ functions, simple formulas (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), Conditional Formatting, Goal seek, data import from text file, chart creation and customization Comment point To calculate the yield to maturity of the two bonds, the XIRR function has been used in both cases instead of the YIELD and TBILLYIELD functions In fact, the YIELD function does not calculate correctly the yield to maturity when the cash flows not occur at regular intervals (in this case the purchase date is different from any coupon maturity date) In addition, the TBILLYIELD function can be used only for zero coupon bond with maturity date shorter or equal to year In both cases, it is necessary to create the dates and cash flows table because the XIRR function needs ranges containing cash flows and the respective dates For the zero coupon bond, we only need two cash flows: the first one is equal to the purchase price, whereas the second one is equal to the face value (always 100) For the fixed rate bond, first it is necessary to calculate the accrued interest to calculate correctly the first cash flow (equal to the purchase price plus the accrued interest), and then calculate all the other dates and their respective cash flows The accrued interest is equal to the coupon value (which in this case is semi-annual) multiplied by the days as the last coupon and divided by the days between a coupon and the other For the calculation, three functions were used: COUPPCD (to automatically calculate the payment date previous to the purchase date), COUPDAYBS (to calculate the days between the date of the last coupon and the purchase date), and COUPDAYS (to calculate the days between the coupon and the other) In all cases, the “Actual/360” basis has been used In the case of the fixed rate bond, coupon dates (all but the first one, equal to the purchase date) have been calculated with the formula (cell A23): = IFERROR(COUPNCD (A22,$B$4,2,2),"") The COUPNCD function calculates automatically the next coupon date and the IFERROR function leaves the cells empty in case of evaluation of a bond with different values and a shorter maturity Cash flows have been calculated (all but the first one, equal to the purchase price plus the accrued interest) with the formula (cell B23): =IFERROR(IF(A23=$B$4,$B$6+$B$9,$B$9),"") The formula controls if the coupon date is equal to the bond maturity date: if the condition is true, the face value is summed to the coupon value, if it is false only the coupon value is shown Also in this case the IFERROR function leaves empty all the cells not corresponding to a date Comment point The XNPV function calculates the net present value of a series of cash flows (at least one must be negative) corresponding to a series of dates At first, the result of the function is equal to -68,202.17 euros, which corresponds to the present value of all cash flows discounted at 3.45% Using Goal seek, we found the annual discount rate for which the internal rate of return would be equal to 100,000 euros Comment point Data from the Exercise 11.10 - Stock.txt and Exercise 11.10 Index.txt are separated by tab, have the comma as decimal separator and the point as thousands separator, and have the dates set with aaaa-mm-dd To import correctly the data with the Get External Data/From Text command, it is necessary to specify that the separators used in the file are the comma as decimal separator and the point as thousands separator and that the Date field is set with the format “AMD” The simple moving average of the index quotes has been calculated using the AVERAGE function and setting a range of 50 values Statistics in the Index worksheet have been calculated using the AVERAGE, MEDIAN, STDEV.S (imported data are a sample), KURT and SKEW, set with the range including all the Adj Close field values (F2:F2527) Comment point After copying the values of Date and Adj Close fields of the Index worksheet in columns A and B of the Analysis worksheet, it is necessary to use a function to return, for each date, the price of the Alpha stock The values can be returned using the VLOOKUP function, which searches for each date in the Stock worksheet and returns the corresponding value in the Adj Close field: =IFERROR(VLOOKUP(A2,Stock!A$2:F$2596,6,FALSE),C3) The IFERROR function is needed to avoid that when a certain date is not available, the value of the Alpha stock an error message is shown In this case, the missing value is replaced by the quote of the previous day Comment point The slope, the intercept, and the R-squared of the linear regression between the Alpha stock and the index have been calculated using the functions SLOPE, INTERCEPT, and RSQ: in all the functions, the quotes of the Alpha stock have been set as dependent variable (y) and the quotes of the index as independent variable (x) To show the formula of the regression line on the chart, create a scatterplot, then insert a linear trendline, and in the Format trendline tab select the “Show equation on chart” option Comments and functions unit 12 EXERCISE 12.1 - Turnover Tools needed to solve the exercise: INDEX, MATCH, IFERROR functions, data validation EXERCISE 12.2 - Orders Tools needed to solve the exercise: INDEX, MATCH, IFERROR functions, data validation, Paste command options (Transpose) EXERCISE 12.3 - Gifts Tools needed to solve the exercise: Data validation, COUNTIF, AND, SUBSTITUTE functions SUM, EXERCISE 12.4 - Product IDs Tools needed to solve the exercise: Data validation, LEFT, AND, OR, LEN functions EXERCISE 12.5 - Countries and offices ISNUMBER, LEN, Tools needed to solve the exercise: Data validation, INDIRECT, OR, WEEKDAY, TODAY functions EXERCISE 12.6 - Variable period Tools needed to solve the exercise: Data validation, SUM, OFFSET, MATCH functions EXERCISE 12.7 - Choose your category Tools needed to solve the exercise: Data validation, VLOOKUP, MATCH functions, chart creation Comment point In cell I1, it is necessary to use the data validation to create a dropdown menu in the cell In the Source box of the Data validation tool, it is possible to specify the references to a range of cells with the list of values to be used; as an alternative, it is possible to specify the values entering them in the Source box, separated by a comma and without the equal sign at the beginning In this case, it is necessary to be careful and write the values in the Source box exactly as they can be found in the table: a slight difference in the values (e.g., a space at the end of a value) would lead to an error Comment point Cell E1 is set to show the value selected in cell I1 (=I1) It is possible to use different functions to show the values of the category selected in I1 in the cells of the E column In the Products worksheet, the VLOOKUP and MATCH functions have been used In cell E2, the function is the following: =VLOOKUP(A2,A$2:D$11,MATCH(E$1,A$1:D$1,0),FALSE) The function is set to search for the product in the first column of the table and return the value corresponding to the field selected in cell E1 The MATCH function is necessary to return the exact number of the column in which the value searched by the VLOOKUP function can be found and which must be returned: entering the number of the column in the col_index_num argument of the VLOOKUP function, it would be necessary to change the value of the column each time a new value is selected in cell I1 As an alternative to the VLOOKUP and MATCH functions, we could have used other functions In particular, in cell E2, we could have used the IF, INDEX, and MATCH functions or the OFFSET and MATCH functions: =IF($E$1=$B$1,B2,IF($E$1=$C$1,C2,D2)) =INDEX(A2:D2,1,MATCH(E$1,$A$1:$D$1,0)) =OFFSET(A2,0,MATCH(E$1,$A$1:$D$1,0)) Comment point The chart has been created by selecting the values of the A and E columns at the same time, and then selecting a column chart When the value selected in cell I1 changes, the values of column E also change, and so those shown in the chart EXERCISE 12.8 - Chart with bands Tools needed to solve the exercise: IF function, form control setting (checkbox), chart creation and customization EXERCISE 12.9 - Scroll bar Tools needed to solve the exercise: OFFSET function, form control setting (scroll bar), chart creation and customization EXERCISE 12.10 - Dashboard (commented) Tools needed to solve the exercise: VLOOKUP, MATCH functions, conditional formatting, chart creation and customization, options of the Paste command (Paste as linked picture) Comment point The drop-down menus in cells C4, F4, and C13 have been created with the data validation tool from a list: in all the three cases, the Country list can be found in the Control worksheet In order to accelerate the setting of data validation, we could also have assigned a name to the range of cells of the Control worksheet with the list of Countries (e.g., “countries”) and used it as the data validation tool in place of the references to the range (Control!$A$8:$A$38) Also in cell F13, data validation has been used, but with a different list from the Control worksheet The text “Value in 2008” in cells C5, F5, C14, and F14 has been calculated using the following formula: ="Value in "&Control!$B$4 As an alternative, it would have been equally correct to use the CONCATENATE function It is important to note that to set the reference year, we used an absolute reference in cell B4 of the Control worksheet This way, if we decided to use a new reference year for the dashboard, we would change only the value in the Control worksheet Comment point The values corresponding to Gdp, public debt, public debt/Gdp ratio and population of the selected Countries must be calculated using the VLOOKUP function: this way every time that a different Country is selected, Excel returns the right value, without having to change the function settings The function used in cell C6 is the following: = VLOOKUP(C4,Gdp!$A$4:$M$44,MATCH(Control!$B$4,Gdp!$A$3:$ M$3,0),FALSE) Note that the value searched for by the function is the one in cell C4 (selected Country) and that the MATCH function has been used to return the number of column in which the desired reference year can be found: this value has been entered as a reference to cell B4 of the Control worksheet, so that if the reference year changes, the values automatically update As each requested value can be found in a different worksheet, it was not possible to create a function in cell C6 and then copy it downwards But, once you set the functions of the first selected Country (C6:C9) using absolute references where needed, it was possible to copy the cells in the F6:F9, C15:C18, and F15:F18 cell ranges Comment point In the I6:I9, I15:I18 and I24:I27 cell ranges, the names of the Countries selected in cells C4, F4, C13, and F13 have been shown using a cell reference Gdp, public debt-gdp, and population values of the selected Countries have been calculated using once again the VLOOKUP and MATCH functions In both cases, we used mixed cell references to set the function once in the first cell in the top left corner and then copied it in all the other cells The function used in cell J6 is the following: =VLOOKUP($I6,Gdp!$A$3:$K$37,CONFRONTA(J$5,Gdp!$A$3:$M $3,0),FALSE) The result of the function in cell J15 (calculation of the public debtgdp ratio) has been divided by 100, because in the Debt-gdp worksheet we have integer numbers representing percentage values Comment point To create the tables with the list of the Countries sorted by their public debt-Gdp ratio in the Calc2 and Calc3 worksheets, we copied first the Country list from the Control worksheet Then, also in this case the VLOOKUP and MATCH functions have been used to always return values updated to any possible change of the reference year To cells of both tables (cells with the values), a conditional formatting has been applied (data bars) Finally, the two tables have been sorted Comment point The last point of the exercise has not difficult requests: charts have been created without special settings and then moved into the Dashboard worksheet The area B1:F18 of the Calc1 worksheet has been copied and pasted as linked image to permit its automatic update if the values change Finally, tables of the Calc2 and Calc3 worksheets have been pasted as pictures Authors Massimo Ballerini is Course Director of Computer science and lecturer in other Information and Communication Technology courses at Università Bocconi He is a contract lecturer at Politecnico di Milano and he has been lecturer and research fellow at Bicocca University, IULM University and other educational institutes As a professional, he is a consultant for international companies operating in the fields of digital technologies for media Alberto Clerici is the Director of IT Education Center and Language Center at Università Bocconi As a lecturer and consultant, he has worked with several universities and major training companies in the Information Technology field He is author of several ICT books M Chiara Debernardi is an Academic Fellow for Computer science course and teaches statistical software and coding in extracurricular courses at Università Bocconi She deals with consulting and corporate training in the field of Business Intelligence, Big Data and Machine Learning Davide Del Corno has been for several years an Academic Fellow for the Computer science course and for the extracurricular course of Excel Advanced at Università Bocconi He heads the Property Management and Development function at Fondazione Patrimonio Ca’ Granda Maurizio De Pra is Course Director of Computer science and lecturer in other courses in the area of information technology and office automation at Università Bocconi Senior lecturer in computer science and finance, he has worked for major Italian insurance and banking companies He is author of books and publications on various technical topics ... effectively and professionally work with Excel The workbook starts with the basics and gets progressively to deal with very complex cases It is a valuable support for college students, professionals and. .. director of ITEC (IT Education Center) at the same University THIRD EDITION EXCEL WORKBOOK 160 Exercises with Solutions and Comments M Ballerini · A Clerici M C Debernardi · D Del Corno M De Pra Copyright... allow working effectively and professionally with Excel This workbook is divided into 12 thematic units Unit starts with the basics of Excel, and unit after unit the workbook is designed to arrive