Excel

admin@vrindawan.in
Excel is a spreadsheet program from Microsoft and a component of its Office product group for business applications. Microsoft Excel enables users to format, organize and calculate data in a spreadsheet.

By organizing data using software like Excel, data analysts and other users can make information easier to view as data is added or changed. Excel contains a large number of boxes called cells that are ordered in rows and columns. Data is placed in these cells.

Excel is a part of the Microsoft Office and Office 365 suites and is compatible with other applications in the Office suite. The spreadsheet software is available for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS platforms.

Common Excel use cases

Excel is most commonly used in business settings. For example, it is used in business analysis, human resource management, operations management and performance reporting. Excel uses a large collection of cells formatted to organize and manipulate data and solve mathematical functions. Users can arrange data in the spreadsheet using graphing tools, pivot tables and formulas. The spreadsheet application also has a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications.

Organizations use Microsoft Excel for the following:

  • collection and verification of business data;
  • business analysis;
  • data entry and storage;
  • data analysis;
  • performance reporting;
  • strategic analysis;
  • accounting and budgeting;
  • administrative and managerial management;
  • account management;
  • project management; and
  • office administration.

Excel terminology and components

Excel has its own terminology for its components, which new users may not immediately find understandable. Some of these terms and components include the following:

  • Cell. A user enters data into a cell, which is the intersection of a column and row.
  • Cell reference. This is the set of coordinates where a cell is located. Rows are horizontal and numbered whereas columns are vertical and assigned a letter.
  • Active cell. This is the currently selected cell, outlined by a green box.
  • Workbook. This is an Excel file that contains one or more worksheets.
  • Worksheet. These are the different documents nested within a Workbook.
  • Worksheet tab. These are the tabs at the bottom left of the spreadsheet.
  • Column and row headings. These are the numbered and lettered cells located just outside of the columns and rows. Selecting a header highlights the entire row or column.
  • Formula. Formulas are mathematical equations, cell references or functions that can be placed inside a cell to produce a value. Formulas must start with an equal “=” sign.
  • Formula bar. This is the long input bar that is used to enter values or formulas in cells. It is located at the top of the worksheet, next to the “fx” label.
  • Address bar. This bar located to the left of the formula bar shows the number and letter coordinates of an active cell.
  • Filter. These are rules a user can employ to select what rows in a worksheet to display. This option is located on the top right of the home bar under “Sort & Filter.” An auto filter option can be selected to show rows that match specific values.
  • AutoFill. This feature enables users to copy data to more than one cell automatically. With two or more cells in a series, a user can select both cells and drag the bottom right corner down to autofill the rest of the cells.
  • AutoSum. This feature enables users to add multiple values. Users can select the cells they want to add and press the Alt and Equal keys. There is also a button to enable this feature on the top right of the home page, above “Fill” and to the left of “Sort & Filter.”
  • PivotTable. This data summarization tool sorts and calculates data automatically. This is located under the insert tab on the far left.
  • PivotChart. This chart acts as a visual aid to the PivotTable, providing graph representations of the data. It is located under the middle of the insert page, next to maps.
  • Source data. This is the information that is used to create a PivotTable.

Advanced Excel capabilities

More advanced tools in Excel include the following:

  • TREND function. This tool is used to calculate linear trend lines through a set of Y or X values. It can be used for time series trend analysis or projecting future trends. Trendlines can be used on charts.
  • VLOOKUP. The Vertical Lookup, or VLOOKUP function, can be used to search for values in a larger data set and pull that data into a new table. VLOOKUP is a cell input command that looks like =VLOOKUP(). The parentheses include the data the user wants to look up, where to look for it, the column number with the value to return; or optionally, the user can specify an Approximate or Exact match indicated by True or False.
  • Table Array. This is a combination of two or more tables with data and values linked and related to one another. This is part of VLOOKUP.
  • Col_ index_ num. Another value when creating a table array that specifies the column from where data is being pulled.
  • Range_ lookup. This value in VLOOKUP provides information closest to what a user wants to find when nothing matches other variables. This is represented by a true or false label. False gives the exact value a user is looking for and True gives results from a variable data range.
  • MAX and MIN functions. These functions provide the maximum and minimum values from selected data sets. MAX is used to find the maximum value in a function tab and MIN is used to find the minimum value.
  • AND function. This function has more than one criteria set when searching variables. If a variable matches the criteria, the value will be returned as true; if not, it will be returned as false. The input for the function should look like this: =AND (logical1, [logical2], …).

Additional functions for use in Excel include subtract, multiply, divide, count, median, concatenate and other logical functions similar to AND, such as OR.