Get the most out of excel formulas and functions1

F1 Get the Most out of Excel Formulas & Functions The Ultimate Excel Formulas & Functions Help Guide Last printed: 8/22/2005 9:56:00 AM Last saved: 8/22/2005 9:55:00 AM About The Author About The Author Joseph Rubin, CPA, principal of www.exceltip.com (a leading Excel Web site) is the author of the very successful books: • F1 Get the Most out of Excel! The Ultimate Excel Tip Help Guide • Financial Statements.xls A Step by Step Guide on Creating Financial Statements Using Microsoft Excel • Mr Excel On Excel Joseph Rubin has over 27 years of financial experience in the accounting industry He has served as CFO, Controller and has run his own CPA practice for many years Joseph Rubin, CPA, is an independent consultant specializing in the development of applications using Microsoft Excel for the financial industry and has instructed thousands of professionals on Microsoft Excel Contact the author - jrubin@exceltip.com Last printed: 8/22/2005 9:56:00 AM Last saved: 8/22/2005 9:55:00 AM iii iv F1 Get the Most out of Excel Formulas & Functions This book is dedicated to my family, my wife, and my three children Thanks to Yael Schneebaum Chris Tobin Sara Amihud Without them this book would never have been born Thanks to Excel Gurus Iki Sapoznik Ido Ben-Horin Joseph Rubin, CPA Last printed: 8/22/2005 9:56:00 AM Last saved: 8/22/2005 9:55:00 AM vi F1 Get the Most out of Excel Formulas & Functions How to Use this Resource Effectively In the Book Use the Table of Contents at the front of the book and the Index at the back to find the topic you are looking for Each topic (Q&A) in the book contains the following parts: • Title • Problem • Solution • Screenshot • Explanation In Excel workbooks • All the formula solutions presented in the book are included in working Excel workbook files On the Internet • All the formula solutions presented in the book have been entered into the www.exceltip.com database To discuss a specific formula, visit www.exceltip.com/fx- & the page number in the book For example, if you want to discuss a formula from page 100, type the following URL into your browser: www.exceltip.com/fx-100 Last printed: 8/22/2005 9:56:00 AM Last saved: 8/22/2005 9:55:00 AM How this Book is Organized How this Book is Organized This book contains 10 chapters, Appendix and Index: Chapter 1, Working With Formulas Chapter 2, Text Chapter 3, Date & Time Chapter 4, Lookup Chapter 5, Logical & Errors Chapter 6, Counting Chapter 7, Summing Chapter 8, List Chapter 9, Miscellaneous Calculation & Math Chapter 10, Income Tax & Financial Appendix, List of Functions Index Last printed: 8/22/2005 9:56:00 AM Last saved: 8/22/2005 9:55:00 AM vii viii F1 Get the Most out of Excel Formulas & Functions Contents at a Glance Chapter Working With Formulas Chapter Text 25 Chapter Date & Time 71 Chapter Lookup 159 Chapter Logical & Errors 215 Chapter Counting 241 Chapter Summing 289 Chapter List 331 Chapter Miscellaneous Calculation & Math 361 Chapter 10 Income Tax & Financial 429 Appendix List of Functions 437 Index 455 Last printed: 8/22/2005 9:56:00 AM Last saved: 8/22/2005 9:55:00 AM Table of Contents Table of Contents Chapter Working With Formulas Inserting, Editing, & Copying Formulas Inserting/Editing Formulas Nesting Formulas .3 Changing an Absolute Reference to a Relative Reference or Vice Versa Copying a Formula from a Cell While Keeping the Absolute Reference or Relative Reference Copying Formulas from a Range of Cells without Changing the Absolute or Relative References Selecting, Displaying, Printing, & Pasting Formulas .7 Displaying Formula Syntax .7 Displaying Both Formulas and Values for Cells Selecting Cells That Contain Formulas Pasting Values 10 Adding a Comment to a Formula 11 Printing Formula Syntax 11 Array Formulas 12 Understanding Arrays 12 Using Arrays in Formulas .12 Using Range Names in Formulas 13 Range Name Syntax .13 Defining a Range Name 14 Deleting a Range Name 15 Using a Range Name in a Formula 15 Auditing Formulas 16 Moving Between Precedent and Dependent Cells 16 Last printed: 8/22/2005 9:56:00 AM Last saved: 8/22/2005 9:55:00 AM ix x F1 Get the Most out of Excel Formulas & Functions Stepping into a Formula 19 Tracing Errors in Formula Results 21 Protecting Formulas 22 Protecting Cells Containing Formulas in a Protected Sheet 22 Protecting Cells Containing Formulas in an Unprotected Sheet 24 Chapter Text 25 Entering Text 27 Restricting Cell Entries to Text Only 27 Restricting the Number of Characters Entered into a Cell 28 Preventing Duplicates When Entering Data 29 Combining Text, Date, & Number 30 Combining Text and Formatted Numbers into a Single Entity 30 Combining Text and a Formatted Date into a Single Entity 31 Combining Numbers that Have Leading Zeros 32 Combining the Contents of Every N Number of Cells into One Value 33 Encoding a Sequence of Letters 34 Combining Text and Numerically Calculated Results into One Output String 35 Text Formatting — Troubleshooting 36 Formulas Erroneously Appearing as Text 36 Avoiding Problems when Numeric Values are used as Text 37 Adjusting a Formula to Return a Blank, Rather than a Zero, When Operating on Empty Cells 39 Checking Whether Cells in a Range are Blank, and Counting the Blank Cells 40 Creating Formulas that Only Return Results from Non-Blank Cells 41 Removing Redundant Characters from a Range of Cells and Resetting the Format 43 Removing Hidden Apostrophes from Imported Numbers 44 Subdividing Text 45 Subdividing a Mixed String into Separate Cells Containing only Numbers or Characters 45 Splitting a Full Address into Three Separate Cells 47 Last printed: 8/22/2005 9:56:00 AM Last saved: 8/22/2005 9:55:00 AM Table of Contents Separating First and Last Names .48 Extracting the First N Number of Words from a String 49 Replacing Characters 50 Creating New IP Addresses 50 Converting Numbers with Trailing Minus Signs to Normal Negative Numbers .51 Replacing Substrings with Numbers from Adjacent Cells 53 Performing Numeric Operations on Substrings .54 Searching a String 55 Searching a String for a Matching Word from another String 55 Find the Alphabetically Lowest Letter in a List 56 Identifying Numeric Values within a Range Formatted as Text .58 Identifying the Case of Letters within Strings 59 Finding the Relative Position of Numbers within a String 60 Searching a String for a Specific Substring 61 Determining Long Distance Phone Calls, Based on the Number Dialed 63 Rearranging & Sorting Text 64 Rearranging a String in Alphabetic Order .64 Reversing the Word Order within a String 65 Retrieving Cell Address, Row Number .66 Retrieving the Cell Address of the Largest Value in a Range 66 Retrieving Each Row Number that Corresponds with Successful Matches in a Look Up 67 Retrieving the Row Number that Corresponds with a Matched Value in a Look Up 68 Chapter Date & Time 71 Date 72 Entering Dates Quickly 72 Calculating Number of Days, Weeks, Months and Years between Dates 73 Calculating a Date Based on Year, Week Number and Day of the Week 74 Finding the Last Day of a Given Month 75 Calculating the Number of Business Days in a Specified Period .77 Last printed: 8/22/2005 9:56:00 AM Last saved: 8/22/2005 9:55:00 AM xi xii F1 Get the Most out of Excel Formulas & Functions Calculating a Project’s End Date 78 Calculating a Required Date According to Two Criteria 79 Indicating Due Payments, Based on the Current Date 80 Calculating the Date of the Nth Specific Day of the Month 81 Eliminating Negative Values from Date Subtractions 83 Avoiding Negative Values when Calculating the Number of Days between Two Dates 84 Avoiding False Results when Counting Dates Matching Specified Criteria 85 Calculating the Week Number Corresponding with a Specific Date 87 Determining whether Two Given Dates Occur within the Same Week 88 Finding the Number of Days in a Given Month 89 Finding the Serial Number of the Last Day of the Month 90 Adding a Specified Number of Months to a Date 92 Converting a Month’s Serial Number into Its Corresponding Name 94 Calculating the Quarter Number for Calendar and Fiscal Year 95 Converting a Date into a String, Indicating the Quarter Number and Year 97 Determining Which Quarter a Specified Date Corresponds With 98 Converting Older Dates to the Current Year 99 Converting a Julian Date to a Calendar Date 100 Time 102 Entering Times Quickly (1) 102 Entering Times Quickly (2) 103 Adding Time Values 106 Adding Text Values Representing Time 106 Adding Time Values from Separate Hours and Minutes Columns 107 Adding a Number to a Formatted Time Value 108 Calculating Absolute Difference between Two Time Values 109 Subtracting Times 111 Converting a Decimal Value to a Time Value 112 Converting Text Representing Minutes and Seconds into Numerical Values 113 Converting Times to Decimal Values 114 Calculating Military Time Intervals 115 Last printed: 8/22/2005 9:56:00 AM Last saved: 8/22/2005 9:55:00 AM Miscellaneous Calculation & Math Chapter ¾ Solution 1: Use the INT function as shown in the following formula: =INT(A2)+((A2-INT(A2))*4)/10 ¾ Solution 2: Use the DOLLARFR function as shown in the following formula: =DOLLARFR(A2,4) Explanation: ) INT Formula: The INT function in the following expression rounds down the decimal fraction in cell A2 to the nearest integer ((A2-INT(A2))*4) The number returned by the INT function (the integer part of the fraction in cell A2) is then subtracted from the number in cell A2 and the result (the non-integer part of the number in cell A2) is multiplied by (the fraction to which the number in cell A2 should be converted) The result of the above expression is divided by 10 (the fraction from which the number in cell A2 should be converted) and added with the number returned by the INT function (the integer part of cell A2) Thus, the decimal fraction in cell A2 is converted to fractions of four, where each quarter is the equivalent of one decimal unit (tenth) To discuss the formula presented, visit: www.exceltip.com/fx-423 Last printed: 8/20/2005 8:46:00 PM Last saved: 8/20/2005 8:46:00 PM 423 424 F1 Get the Most out of Excel Formulas & Functions ) DOLLARFR Formula: The DOLLARFR function converts the decimal number in cell A2 to a fraction of Analysis ToolPak Add-In: The DOLLARFR function is included in the Analysis ToolPak Add-In To install the Analysis ToolPak Add-in: Select Tools → Add-Ins → Analysis ToolPak, Click OK Simplifying Formulas by Defining Names for Often-Repeated Parts ¾ Problem: The following formula searches column A for each of the serial numbers listed in column C It then analyses the corresponding number from column B: for numbers less than or equal to 40, 10 is added; and for numbers greater than or equal to 90, 10 is subtracted Other numbers are returned as is =IF(VLOOKUP($C2,$A$2:$B$5,2,FALSE)>=90,VLOOKUP($C2,$A$2:$B$5,2, FALSE)10,IF(VLOOKUP($C2,$A$2:$B$5,2,FALSE)=90,value-10,IF(value[...]... 7 8 F1 Get the Most out of Excel Formulas & Functions Regular display: Displaying Formulas: Displaying Both Formulas and Values for Cells ¾ To display both formulas and values for cells: 1 From the Window menu, select New Window 2 From the Window menu, select Arrange 3 Select the Horizontal option button and click OK 4 Select one of the two windows and press (the key to the left of the number... Enter or Cancel icons to the left of the fx on the Formula Bar 3 Select another cell and press Last printed: 8/20/2005 10:07:00 AM Last saved: 8/20/2005 9:16:00 AM 5 6 F1 Get the Most out of Excel Formulas & Functions Copying Formulas from a Range of Cells without Changing the Absolute or Relative References ¾ To copy/paste Formulas from a range of cells without changing the Absolute or Relative... then press 4 Click Cancel or Enter (the two buttons between the Name Box and the formula in the Formula Bar) to exit edit mode 5 Select the cell containing the first formula, and in the Formula Bar, select the reference G12, and then press Last printed: 8/20/2005 10:07:00 AM Last saved: 8/20/2005 9:16:00 AM 3 4 F1 Get the Most out of Excel Formulas & Functions Changing an Absolute Reference... Relative references: 1 Select the range of cells containing the formulas and press 2 In the Find what box, type the = sign 3 In the Replace with box, type the # symbol (to change the formulas to text) 4 Click Replace All, and then click Close 5 Copy and paste the cells to a new location 6 Repeat steps 1 through 3, reversing the # and = signs (to change the text to formulas) Last printed: 8/20/2005... Relative reference is the distance, in rows and columns, between the reference and the cell containing the formula Example: In cell A1, type the number 100, and in cell B1, type the formula =A1 Cell B1 is one column to the right of cell A1 When the formula is copied from cell B1 to cell B10, the distance between the reference and the cell containing the formula remains one column, and the formula in cell... 9:16:00 AM 9 10 F1 Get the Most out of Excel Formulas & Functions Pasting Values ¾ To paste the calculated value of a single formula into a cell (thus overwriting the formula): Press to edit and then to calculate ¾ To paste the calculated value of a single formula into the cell below the cell containing the formula: Press