In any department of any organization, Excel plays an integral part of data management, analysis, representation, etc. Be it the owner of an MNC or a clerk, every corporate person gets the need for using a spreadsheet. But without Excel Functions and Formulas, working on the tool is tiring and irritating. How? This is what we are about to discuss in this article.
Let's say you need to calculate the standard deviation of a data set. For standard deviation, you have to calculate the variance of the data first. For variance, you have to get the average of data and many more things. Then you have to put them in a formula of standard deviation.
But in Excel, you can calculate the standard deviation of data by just using a simple function STDEV.P. Similarly, if you want to get an average of data, use the AVERAGE function, to sum values use SUM.
There are more than 470 functions in Excel in Categories of Mathematical, Statistical, Logical, Lookup functions, etc. Excel has a function for every kind of calculation. If there's not, then we use Excel formulas. And that takes us to the next point.
Most of the time, our problems in excel can't be solved using a single function. In that case, we use a combination of functions to get our work done. For example, extracting text from string, get last value from a list, etc.
Making reports in excel without using formulas can take hours every time. Using excel function and formulas you can do your work faster. This will allow you to complete your work faster and you will have a lot of time left for yourself.
Let's say you send daily sales reports every day to your colleagues and bosses. If you don't know about excel formulas and function, you will spend hours every day creating the same report. But if you use the Excel Formulas, you can set the formulas to calculate the report for you. You will only have to update the records to the source data.
As I said, almost every organization uses spreadsheet applications like Excel to manage the day to day data. That is why you will find MS Excel and Formulas like VLOOKUP, COUNTIF, IF, etc. mentioned as essential skills in Most Job Descriptions. And these functions are quite easy to use but critically useful at the job. So practice the main functions of Excel and get employed.
Without Excel Formulas, it is impossible to make dynamic interactive dashboards in Excel Sheets. And management loves dashboards. Using Excel Formula you can create dashboards to get the data source crunched down and multiple reports and charts on a single screen.
The excel formulas allow you to create stunning charts that summarise the data into one picture. Without formulas, it will be difficult to create such advanced charts. If you want to highlight max and min values on excel charts, you will need to know the basics of the excel function.
The Excel shortcuts work fantastically and increase your speed of working exponentially. You can learn about 50 important excel shortcuts here.
In spite of the usefulness and easiness, not everyone is good with excel functions. Actually most people don't put effort. But believe me, it worths the effort. If you are good with excel formulas, you can be exceptional among your colleagues. You will be able to solve problems in minutes that will take others hours.
The conclusion is that Excel formulas empower you to do more and save time for yourself. It doesn't matter if you are a manager or a fresher if you know the excel formulas and function you can increase your productivity exponentially. If you don't, you may not Finnish your work on time. So yeah, Excel functions are great tools and they deserve to be learned.
Here at Exceltip, we try to help people learn Excel functions, formulas, techniques through small explanatory blogs. We have covered over 3000 topics. And if you have any doubts and you mention them in the comments section below, we reply to them frequently.
Functions you should start with:
How to use Excel VLOOKUP Function| This is one of the most used and popular functions of excel that is used to lookup value from different ranges and sheets.
How to use the Excel COUNTIF Function| Count values with conditions using this amazing function. You don't need to filter your data to count specific value. Countif function is essential to prepare your dashboard.
How to Use SUMIF Function in Excel | This is another dashboard essential function. This helps you sum up values on specific conditions.
You can explore the Excel Function here:
Excel Formulas that may help you:
Remove matching characters in Text | To remove matching characters we won't use REPLACE function. We will use the SUBSTITUTE function. This function automatically removes given text with another text.
Remove leading and trailing spaces from text in Excel | The trailing spaces disturb your data set and it is necessary to remove any trailing or leading space from the text in excel. This formula removes all trailing spaces.
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