Formulas & Functions Date, Time, String, VLOOKUP | Microsoft Excel Online Tutorial Introductio
Excel Formulas & Functions Date, Time, String, VLOOKUP
Formulas and functions are the building blocks of working with numeric data in Excel. This article introduces you to formulas and functions.
What is a formula?
It is the simplest form, a formula is an expression made up of cell addresses and arithmetic operators.
What is a function? (Function Wizard)
A function is a predefined formula. Functions allow you to use descriptive names to automatically apply formulas for you. Examples of functions include;
SUM for summation of a range of numbers
AVERAGE for calculating the average of a given range of numbers
COUNT for counting the number of items in a given range.
VLOOKUP function
The VLOOKUP function is used to perform a vertical look up in the left most column and return a value in the same row from a column that you specify. Let's explain this in a layman's language. The home supplies budget has a serial number column that uniquely identifies each item in the budget. Suppose you have the item serial number, and you would like to know the item description, you can use the VLOOKUP function. Here is how the VLOOKUP function would work.