Functions that can be used in excel

ABS function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the absolute value of a number

ACCRINT function

Financial:    Returns the accrued interest for a security that pays periodic interest

ACCRINTM function

Financial:    Returns the accrued interest for a security that pays interest at maturity

ACOS function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the arccosine of a number

ACOSH function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the inverse hyperbolic cosine of a number

ACOT function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the arccotangent of a number

ACOTH function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the hyperbolic arccotangent of a number

AGGREGATE function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns an aggregate in a list or database

ADDRESS function

Lookup and reference:    Returns a reference as text to a single cell in a worksheet

AMORDEGRC function

Financial:    Returns the depreciation for each accounting period by using a depreciation coefficient

AMORLINC function

Financial:    Returns the depreciation for each accounting period

AND function

Logical:    Returns TRUE if all of its arguments are TRUE

ARABIC function

Math and trigonometry:    Converts a Roman number to Arabic, as a number

AREAS function

Lookup and reference:    Returns the number of areas in a reference

ARRAYTOTEXT function

Text:    Returns an array of text values from any specified range

ASC function

Text:    Changes full-width (double-byte) English letters or katakana within a character string to half-width (single-byte) characters

ASIN function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the arcsine of a number

ASINH function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the inverse hyperbolic sine of a number

ATAN function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the arctangent of a number

ATAN2 function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the arctangent from x- and y-coordinates

ATANH function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the inverse hyperbolic tangent of a number

AVEDEV function

Statistical:    Returns the average of the absolute deviations of data points from their mean

AVERAGE function

Statistical:    Returns the average of its arguments

AVERAGEA function

Statistical:    Returns the average of its arguments, including numbers, text, and logical values

AVERAGEIF function

Statistical:    Returns the average (arithmetic mean) of all the cells in a range that meet a given criteria

AVERAGEIFS function

Statistical:    Returns the average (arithmetic mean) of all cells that meet multiple criteria.

BAHTTEXT function

Text:    Converts a number to text, using the ß (baht) currency format

BASE function

Math and trigonometry:    Converts a number into a text representation with the given radix (base)

BESSELI function

Engineering:    Returns the modified Bessel function In(x)

BESSELJ function

Engineering:    Returns the Bessel function Jn(x)

BESSELK function

Engineering:    Returns the modified Bessel function Kn(x)

BESSELY function

Engineering:    Returns the Bessel function Yn(x)

BETADIST function

Compatibility:    Returns the beta cumulative distribution function

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

BETA.DIST function

Statistical:    Returns the beta cumulative distribution function

BETAINV function

Compatibility:    Returns the inverse of the cumulative distribution function for a specified beta distribution

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

BETA.INV function

Statistical:    Returns the inverse of the cumulative distribution function for a specified beta distribution

BIN2DEC function

Engineering:    Converts a binary number to decimal

BIN2HEX function

Engineering:    Converts a binary number to hexadecimal

BIN2OCT function

Engineering:    Converts a binary number to octal

BINOMDIST function

Compatibility:    Returns the individual term binomial distribution probability

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

BINOM.DIST function

Statistical:    Returns the individual term binomial distribution probability

BINOM.DIST.RANGE function

Statistical:    Returns the probability of a trial result using a binomial distribution

BINOM.INV function

Statistical:    Returns the smallest value for which the cumulative binomial distribution is less than or equal to a criterion value

BITAND function

Engineering:    Returns a ‘Bitwise And’ of two numbers

BITLSHIFT function

Engineering:    Returns a value number shifted left by shift_amount bits

BITOR function

Engineering:    Returns a bitwise OR of 2 numbers

BITRSHIFT function

Engineering:    Returns a value number shifted right by shift_amount bits

BITXOR function

Engineering:    Returns a bitwise ‘Exclusive Or’ of two numbers

BYCOL

Logical:    Applies a LAMBDA to each column and returns an array of the results

BYROW

Logical:    Applies a LAMBDA to each row and returns an array of the results

CALL function

Add-in and Automation:    Calls a procedure in a dynamic link library or code resource

CEILING function

Compatibility:    Rounds a number to the nearest integer or to the nearest multiple of significance

CEILING.MATH function

Math and trigonometry:    Rounds a number up, to the nearest integer or to the nearest multiple of significance

CEILING.PRECISE function

Math and trigonometry:    Rounds a number the nearest integer or to the nearest multiple of significance. Regardless of the sign of the number, the number is rounded up.

CELL function

Information:    Returns information about the formatting, location, or contents of a cell

This function is not available in Excel for the web.

CHAR function

Text:    Returns the character specified by the code number

CHIDIST function

Compatibility:    Returns the one-tailed probability of the chi-squared distribution

Note: In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

CHIINV function

Compatibility:    Returns the inverse of the one-tailed probability of the chi-squared distribution

Note: In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

CHITEST function

Compatibility:    Returns the test for independence

Note: In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

CHISQ.DIST function

Statistical:    Returns the cumulative beta probability density function

CHISQ.DIST.RT function

Statistical:    Returns the one-tailed probability of the chi-squared distribution

CHISQ.INV function

Statistical:    Returns the cumulative beta probability density function

CHISQ.INV.RT function

Statistical:    Returns the inverse of the one-tailed probability of the chi-squared distribution

CHISQ.TEST function

Statistical:    Returns the test for independence

CHOOSE function

Lookup and reference:    Chooses a value from a list of values

CHOOSECOLS

Lookup and reference:    Returns the specified columns from an array

CHOOSEROWS

Lookup and reference:    Returns the specified rows from an array

CLEAN function

Text:    Removes all nonprintable characters from text

CODE function

Text:    Returns a numeric code for the first character in a text string

COLUMN function

Lookup and reference:    Returns the column number of a reference

COLUMNS function

Lookup and reference:    Returns the number of columns in a reference

COMBIN function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the number of combinations for a given number of objects

COMBINA function

Math and trigonometry:   

Returns the number of combinations with repetitions for a given number of items

COMPLEX function

Engineering:    Converts real and imaginary coefficients into a complex number

CONCAT function

Text:    Combines the text from multiple ranges and/or strings, but it doesn’t provide the delimiter or IgnoreEmpty arguments.

CONCATENATE function

Text:    Joins several text items into one text item

CONFIDENCE function

Compatibility:    Returns the confidence interval for a population mean

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

CONFIDENCE.NORM function

Statistical:    Returns the confidence interval for a population mean

CONFIDENCE.T function

Statistical:    Returns the confidence interval for a population mean, using a Student’s t distribution

CONVERT function

Engineering:    Converts a number from one measurement system to another

CORREL function

Statistical:    Returns the correlation coefficient between two data sets

COS function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the cosine of a number

COSH function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the hyperbolic cosine of a number

COT function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the hyperbolic cosine of a number

COTH function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the cotangent of an angle

COUNT function

Statistical:    Counts how many numbers are in the list of arguments

COUNTA function

Statistical:    Counts how many values are in the list of arguments

COUNTBLANK function

Statistical:    Counts the number of blank cells within a range

COUNTIF function

Statistical:    Counts the number of cells within a range that meet the given criteria

COUNTIFS function

Statistical:    Counts the number of cells within a range that meet multiple criteria

COUPDAYBS function

Financial:    Returns the number of days from the beginning of the coupon period to the settlement date

COUPDAYS function

Financial:    Returns the number of days in the coupon period that contains the settlement date

COUPDAYSNC function

Financial:    Returns the number of days from the settlement date to the next coupon date

COUPNCD function

Financial:    Returns the next coupon date after the settlement date

COUPNUM function

Financial:    Returns the number of coupons payable between the settlement date and maturity date

COUPPCD function

Financial:    Returns the previous coupon date before the settlement date

COVAR function

Compatibility:    Returns covariance, the average of the products of paired deviations

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

COVARIANCE.P function

Statistical:    Returns covariance, the average of the products of paired deviations

COVARIANCE.S function

Statistical:    Returns the sample covariance, the average of the products deviations for each data point pair in two data sets

CRITBINOM function

Compatibility:    Returns the smallest value for which the cumulative binomial distribution is less than or equal to a criterion value

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

CSC function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the cosecant of an angle

CSCH function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the hyperbolic cosecant of an angle

CUBEKPIMEMBER function

Cube:    Returns a key performance indicator (KPI) name, property, and measure, and displays the name and property in the cell. A KPI is a quantifiable measurement, such as monthly gross profit or quarterly employee turnover, used to monitor an organization’s performance.

CUBEMEMBER function

Cube:    Returns a member or tuple in a cube hierarchy. Use to validate that the member or tuple exists in the cube.

CUBEMEMBERPROPERTY function

Cube:    Returns the value of a member property in the cube. Use to validate that a member name exists within the cube and to return the specified property for this member.

CUBERANKEDMEMBER function

Cube:    Returns the nth, or ranked, member in a set. Use to return one or more elements in a set, such as the top sales performer or top 10 students.

CUBESET function

Cube:    Defines a calculated set of members or tuples by sending a set expression to the cube on the server, which creates the set, and then returns that set to Microsoft Office Excel.

CUBESETCOUNT function

Cube:    Returns the number of items in a set.

CUBEVALUE function

Cube:    Returns an aggregated value from a cube.

CUMIPMT function

Financial:    Returns the cumulative interest paid between two periods

CUMPRINC function

Financial:    Returns the cumulative principal paid on a loan between two periods

DATE function

Date and time:    Returns the serial number of a particular date

DATEDIF function

Date and time:    Calculates the number of days, months, or years between two dates. This function is useful in formulas where you need to calculate an age.

DATEVALUE function

Date and time:    Converts a date in the form of text to a serial number

DAVERAGE function

Database:    Returns the average of selected database entries

DAY function

Date and time:    Converts a serial number to a day of the month

DAYS function

Date and time:    Returns the number of days between two dates

DAYS360 function

Date and time:    Calculates the number of days between two dates based on a 360-day year

DB function

Financial:    Returns the depreciation of an asset for a specified period by using the fixed-declining balance method

DBCS function

Text:    Changes half-width (single-byte) English letters or katakana within a character string to full-width (double-byte) characters

DCOUNT function

Database:    Counts the cells that contain numbers in a database

DCOUNTA function

Database:    Counts nonblank cells in a database

DDB function

Financial:    Returns the depreciation of an asset for a specified period by using the double-declining balance method or some other method that you specify

DEC2BIN function

Engineering:    Converts a decimal number to binary

DEC2HEX function

Engineering:    Converts a decimal number to hexadecimal

DEC2OCT function

Engineering:    Converts a decimal number to octal

DECIMAL function

Math and trigonometry:    Converts a text representation of a number in a given base into a decimal number

DEGREES function

Math and trigonometry:    Converts radians to degrees

DELTA function

Engineering:    Tests whether two values are equal

DEVSQ function

Statistical:    Returns the sum of squares of deviations

DGET function

Database:    Extracts from a database a single record that matches the specified criteria

DISC function

Financial:    Returns the discount rate for a security

DMAX function

Database:    Returns the maximum value from selected database entries

DMIN function

Database:    Returns the minimum value from selected database entries

DOLLAR function

Text:    Converts a number to text, using the $ (dollar) currency format

DOLLARDE function

Financial:    Converts a dollar price, expressed as a fraction, into a dollar price, expressed as a decimal number

DOLLARFR function

Financial:    Converts a dollar price, expressed as a decimal number, into a dollar price, expressed as a fraction

DPRODUCT function

Database:    Multiplies the values in a particular field of records that match the criteria in a database

DROP

Lookup and reference:    Excludes a specified number of rows or columns from the start or end of an array

DSTDEV function

Database:    Estimates the standard deviation based on a sample of selected database entries

DSTDEVP function

Database:    Calculates the standard deviation based on the entire population of selected database entries

DSUM function

Database:    Adds the numbers in the field column of records in the database that match the criteria

DURATION function

Financial:    Returns the annual duration of a security with periodic interest payments

DVAR function

Database:    Estimates variance based on a sample from selected database entries

DVARP function

Database:    Calculates variance based on the entire population of selected database entries

EDATE function

Date and time:    Returns the serial number of the date that is the indicated number of months before or after the start date

EFFECT function

Financial:    Returns the effective annual interest rate

ENCODEURL function

Web:    Returns a URL-encoded string

This function is not available in Excel for the web.

EOMONTH function

Date and time:    Returns the serial number of the last day of the month before or after a specified number of months

ERF function

Engineering:    Returns the error function

ERF.PRECISE function

Engineering:    Returns the error function

ERFC function

Engineering:    Returns the complementary error function

ERFC.PRECISE function

Engineering:    Returns the complementary ERF function integrated between x and infinity

ERROR.TYPE function

Information:    Returns a number corresponding to an error type

EUROCONVERT function

Add-in and Automation:    Converts a number to euros, converts a number from euros to a euro member currency, or converts a number from one euro member currency to another by using the euro as an intermediary (triangulation).

EVEN function

Math and trigonometry:    Rounds a number up to the nearest even integer

EXACT function

Text:    Checks to see if two text values are identical

EXP function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns e raised to the power of a given number

EXPAND

Lookup and reference:    Expands or pads an array to specified row and column dimensions

EXPON.DIST function

Statistical:    Returns the exponential distribution

EXPONDIST function

Compatibility:    Returns the exponential distribution

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

FACT function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the factorial of a number

FACTDOUBLE function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the double factorial of a number

FALSE function

Logical:    Returns the logical value FALSE

F.DIST function

Statistical:    Returns the F probability distribution

FDIST function

Compatibility:    Returns the F probability distribution

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

F.DIST.RT function

Statistical:    Returns the F probability distribution

FILTER function

Lookup and reference:    Filters a range of data based on criteria you define

FILTERXML function

Web:    Returns specific data from the XML content by using the specified XPath

This function is not available in Excel for the web.

FIND, FINDB functions

Text:    Finds one text value within another (case-sensitive)

F.INV function

Statistical:    Returns the inverse of the F probability distribution

F.INV.RT function

Statistical:    Returns the inverse of the F probability distribution

FINV function

Compatibility:    Returns the inverse of the F probability distribution

In Excel 2007this is a Statistical function.

FISHER function

Statistical:    Returns the Fisher transformation

FISHERINV function

Statistical:    Returns the inverse of the Fisher transformation

FIXED function

Text:    Formats a number as text with a fixed number of decimals

FLOOR function

Compatibility:    Rounds a number down, toward zero

In Excel 2007 and Excel 2010, this is a Math and trigonometry function.

FLOOR.MATH function

Math and trigonometry:    Rounds a number down, to the nearest integer or to the nearest multiple of significance

FLOOR.PRECISE function

Math and trigonometry:    Rounds a number the nearest integer or to the nearest multiple of significance. Regardless of the sign of the number, the number is rounded up.

FORECAST function

Statistical:    Returns a value along a linear trend

In Excel 2016, this function is replaced with FORECAST.LINEAR as part of the new Forecasting functions, but it’s still available for compatibility with earlier versions.

FORECAST.ETS function

Statistical:    Returns a future value based on existing (historical) values by using the AAA version of the Exponential Smoothing (ETS) algorithm

FORECAST.ETS.CONFINT function

Statistical:    Returns a confidence interval for the forecast value at the specified target date

FORECAST.ETS.SEASONALITY function

Statistical:    Returns the length of the repetitive pattern Excel detects for the specified time series

FORECAST.ETS.STAT function

Statistical:    Returns a statistical value as a result of time series forecasting

FORECAST.LINEAR function

Statistical:    Returns a future value based on existing values

FORMULATEXT function

Lookup and reference:    Returns the formula at the given reference as text

FREQUENCY function

Statistical:    Returns a frequency distribution as a vertical array

F.TEST function

Statistical:    Returns the result of an F-test

FTEST function

Compatibility:    Returns the result of an F-test

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

FV function

Financial:    Returns the future value of an investment

FVSCHEDULE function

Financial:    Returns the future value of an initial principal after applying a series of compound interest rates

GAMMA function

Statistical:    Returns the Gamma function value

GAMMA.DIST function

Statistical:    Returns the gamma distribution

GAMMADIST function

Compatibility:    Returns the gamma distribution

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

GAMMA.INV function

Statistical:    Returns the inverse of the gamma cumulative distribution

GAMMAINV function

Compatibility:    Returns the inverse of the gamma cumulative distribution

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

GAMMALN function

Statistical:    Returns the natural logarithm of the gamma function, Γ(x)

GAMMALN.PRECISE function

Statistical:    Returns the natural logarithm of the gamma function, Γ(x)

GAUSS function

Statistical:    Returns 0.5 less than the standard normal cumulative distribution

GCD function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the greatest common divisor

GEOMEAN function

Statistical:    Returns the geometric mean

GESTEP function

Engineering:    Tests whether a number is greater than a threshold value

GETPIVOTDATA function

Lookup and reference:    Returns data stored in a PivotTable report

GROWTH function

Statistical:    Returns values along an exponential trend

HARMEAN function

Statistical:    Returns the harmonic mean

HEX2BIN function

Engineering:    Converts a hexadecimal number to binary

HEX2DEC function

Engineering:    Converts a hexadecimal number to decimal

HEX2OCT function

Engineering:    Converts a hexadecimal number to octal

HLOOKUP function

Lookup and reference:    Looks in the top row of an array and returns the value of the indicated cell

HOUR function

Date and time:    Converts a serial number to an hour

HSTACK

Lookup and reference:    Appends arrays horizontally and in sequence to return a larger array

HYPERLINK function

Lookup and reference:    Creates a shortcut or jump that opens a document stored on a network server, an intranet, or the Internet

HYPGEOM.DIST function

Statistical:    Returns the hypergeometric distribution

HYPGEOMDIST function

Compatibility:    Returns the hypergeometric distribution

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

IF function

Logical:    Specifies a logical test to perform

IFERROR function

Logical:    Returns a value you specify if a formula evaluates to an error; otherwise, returns the result of the formula

IFNA function

Logical:    Returns the value you specify if the expression resolves to #N/A, otherwise returns the result of the expression

IFS function

Logical:    Checks whether one or more conditions are met and returns a value that corresponds to the first TRUE condition.

IMABS function

Engineering:    Returns the absolute value (modulus) of a complex number

IMAGINARY function

Engineering:    Returns the imaginary coefficient of a complex number

IMARGUMENT function

Engineering:    Returns the argument theta, an angle expressed in radians

IMCONJUGATE function

Engineering:    Returns the complex conjugate of a complex number

IMCOS function

Engineering:    Returns the cosine of a complex number

IMCOSH function

Engineering:    Returns the hyperbolic cosine of a complex number

IMCOT function

Engineering:    Returns the cotangent of a complex number

IMCSC function

Engineering:    Returns the cosecant of a complex number

IMCSCH function

Engineering:    Returns the hyperbolic cosecant of a complex number

IMDIV function

Engineering:    Returns the quotient of two complex numbers

IMEXP function

Engineering:    Returns the exponential of a complex number

IMLN function

Engineering:    Returns the natural logarithm of a complex number

IMLOG10 function

Engineering:    Returns the base-10 logarithm of a complex number

IMLOG2 function

Engineering:    Returns the base-2 logarithm of a complex number

IMPOWER function

Engineering:    Returns a complex number raised to an integer power

IMPRODUCT function

Engineering:    Returns the product of complex numbers

IMREAL function

Engineering:    Returns the real coefficient of a complex number

IMSEC function

Engineering:    Returns the secant of a complex number

IMSECH function

Engineering:    Returns the hyperbolic secant of a complex number

IMSIN function

Engineering:    Returns the sine of a complex number

IMSINH function

Engineering:    Returns the hyperbolic sine of a complex number

IMSQRT function

Engineering:    Returns the square root of a complex number

IMSUB function

Engineering:    Returns the difference between two complex numbers

IMSUM function

Engineering:    Returns the sum of complex numbers

IMTAN function

Engineering:    Returns the tangent of a complex number

INDEX function

Lookup and reference:    Uses an index to choose a value from a reference or array

INDIRECT function

Lookup and reference:    Returns a reference indicated by a text value

INFO function

Information:    Returns information about the current operating environment

This function is not available in Excel for the web.

INT function

Math and trigonometry:    Rounds a number down to the nearest integer

INTERCEPT function

Statistical:    Returns the intercept of the linear regression line

INTRATE function

Financial:    Returns the interest rate for a fully invested security

IPMT function

Financial:    Returns the interest payment for an investment for a given period

IRR function

Financial:    Returns the internal rate of return for a series of cash flows

ISBLANK function

Information:    Returns TRUE if the value is blank

ISERR function

Information:    Returns TRUE if the value is any error value except #N/A

ISERROR function

Information:    Returns TRUE if the value is any error value

ISEVEN function

Information:    Returns TRUE if the number is even

ISFORMULA function

Information:    Returns TRUE if there is a reference to a cell that contains a formula

ISLOGICAL function

Information:    Returns TRUE if the value is a logical value

ISNA function

Information:    Returns TRUE if the value is the #N/A error value

ISNONTEXT function

Information:    Returns TRUE if the value is not text

ISNUMBER function

Information:    Returns TRUE if the value is a number

ISODD function

Information:    Returns TRUE if the number is odd

ISOMITTED

Information:    Checks whether the value in a LAMBDA is missing and returns TRUE or FALSE

ISREF function

Information:    Returns TRUE if the value is a reference

ISTEXT function

Information:    Returns TRUE if the value is text

ISO.CEILING function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns a number that is rounded up to the nearest integer or to the nearest multiple of significance

ISOWEEKNUM function

Date and time:    Returns the number of the ISO week number of the year for a given date

ISPMT function

Financial:    Calculates the interest paid during a specific period of an investment

JIS function

Text:    Changes half-width (single-byte) characters within a string to full-width (double-byte) characters

KURT function

Statistical:    Returns the kurtosis of a data set

LAMBDA

Logical:    Create custom, reusable functions and call them by a friendly name

LARGE function

Statistical:    Returns the k-th largest value in a data set

LCM function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the least common multiple

LEFT, LEFTB functions

Text:    Returns the leftmost characters from a text value

LEN, LENB functions

Text:    Returns the number of characters in a text string

LET

Logical:    Assigns names to calculation results

LINEST function

Statistical:    Returns the parameters of a linear trend

LN function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the natural logarithm of a number

LOG function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the logarithm of a number to a specified base

LOG10 function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the base-10 logarithm of a number

LOGEST function

Statistical:    Returns the parameters of an exponential trend

LOGINV function

Compatibility:    Returns the inverse of the lognormal cumulative distribution

LOGNORM.DIST function

Statistical:    Returns the cumulative lognormal distribution

LOGNORMDIST function

Compatibility:    Returns the cumulative lognormal distribution

LOGNORM.INV function

Statistical:    Returns the inverse of the lognormal cumulative distribution

LOOKUP function

Lookup and reference:    Looks up values in a vector or array

LOWER function

Text:    Converts text to lowercase

MAKEARRAY

Logical:    Returns a calculated array of a specified row and column size, by applying a LAMBDA

MAP

Logical:    Returns an array formed by mapping each value in the array(s) to a new value by applying a LAMBDA to create a new value

MATCH function

Lookup and reference:    Looks up values in a reference or array

MAX function

Statistical:    Returns the maximum value in a list of arguments

MAXA function

Statistical:    Returns the maximum value in a list of arguments, including numbers, text, and logical values

MAXIFS function

Statistical:    Returns the maximum value among cells specified by a given set of conditions or criteria

MDETERM function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the matrix determinant of an array

MDURATION function

Financial:    Returns the Macauley modified duration for a security with an assumed par value of $100

MEDIAN function

Statistical:    Returns the median of the given numbers

MID, MIDB functions

Text:    Returns a specific number of characters from a text string starting at the position you specify

MIN function

Statistical:    Returns the minimum value in a list of arguments

MINIFS function

Statistical:    Returns the minimum value among cells specified by a given set of conditions or criteria.

MINA function

Statistical:    Returns the smallest value in a list of arguments, including numbers, text, and logical values

MINUTE function

Date and time:    Converts a serial number to a minute

MINVERSE function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the matrix inverse of an array

MIRR function

Financial:    Returns the internal rate of return where positive and negative cash flows are financed at different rates

MMULT function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the matrix product of two arrays

MOD function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the remainder from division

MODE function

Compatibility:    Returns the most common value in a data set

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

MODE.MULT function

Statistical:    Returns a vertical array of the most frequently occurring, or repetitive values in an array or range of data

MODE.SNGL function

Statistical:    Returns the most common value in a data set

MONTH function

Date and time:    Converts a serial number to a month

MROUND function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns a number rounded to the desired multiple

MULTINOMIAL function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the multinomial of a set of numbers

MUNIT function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the unit matrix or the specified dimension

N function

Information:    Returns a value converted to a number

NA function

Information:    Returns the error value #N/A

NEGBINOM.DIST function

Statistical:    Returns the negative binomial distribution

NEGBINOMDIST function

Compatibility:    Returns the negative binomial distribution

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

NETWORKDAYS function

Date and time:    Returns the number of whole workdays between two dates

NETWORKDAYS.INTL function

Date and time:    Returns the number of whole workdays between two dates using parameters to indicate which and how many days are weekend days

NOMINAL function

Financial:    Returns the annual nominal interest rate

NORM.DIST function

Statistical:    Returns the normal cumulative distribution

NORMDIST function

Compatibility:    Returns the normal cumulative distribution

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

NORMINV function

Statistical:    Returns the inverse of the normal cumulative distribution

NORM.INV function

Compatibility:    Returns the inverse of the normal cumulative distribution

Note: In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

NORM.S.DIST function

Statistical:    Returns the standard normal cumulative distribution

NORMSDIST function

Compatibility:    Returns the standard normal cumulative distribution

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

NORM.S.INV function

Statistical:    Returns the inverse of the standard normal cumulative distribution

NORMSINV function

Compatibility:    Returns the inverse of the standard normal cumulative distribution

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

NOT function

Logical:    Reverses the logic of its argument

NOW function

Date and time:    Returns the serial number of the current date and time

NPER function

Financial:    Returns the number of periods for an investment

NPV function

Financial:    Returns the net present value of an investment based on a series of periodic cash flows and a discount rate

NUMBERVALUE function

Text:    Converts text to number in a locale-independent manner

OCT2BIN function

Engineering:    Converts an octal number to binary

OCT2DEC function

Engineering:    Converts an octal number to decimal

OCT2HEX function

Engineering:    Converts an octal number to hexadecimal

ODD function

Math and trigonometry:    Rounds a number up to the nearest odd integer

ODDFPRICE function

Financial:    Returns the price per $100 face value of a security with an odd first period

ODDFYIELD function

Financial:    Returns the yield of a security with an odd first period

ODDLPRICE function

Financial:    Returns the price per $100 face value of a security with an odd last period

ODDLYIELD function

Financial:    Returns the yield of a security with an odd last period

OFFSET function

Lookup and reference:    Returns a reference offset from a given reference

OR function

Logical:    Returns TRUE if any argument is TRUE

PDURATION function

Financial:    Returns the number of periods required by an investment to reach a specified value

PEARSON function

Statistical:    Returns the Pearson product moment correlation coefficient

PERCENTILE.EXC function

Statistical:    Returns the k-th percentile of values in a range, where k is in the range 0..1, exclusive

PERCENTILE.INC function

Statistical:    Returns the k-th percentile of values in a range

PERCENTILE function

Compatibility:    Returns the k-th percentile of values in a range

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

PERCENTRANK.EXC function

Statistical:    Returns the rank of a value in a data set as a percentage (0..1, exclusive) of the data set

PERCENTRANK.INC function

Statistical:    Returns the percentage rank of a value in a data set

PERCENTRANK function

Compatibility:    Returns the percentage rank of a value in a data set

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

PERMUT function

Statistical:    Returns the number of permutations for a given number of objects

PERMUTATIONA function

Statistical:    Returns the number of permutations for a given number of objects (with repetitions) that can be selected from the total objects

PHI function

Statistical:    Returns the value of the density function for a standard normal distribution

PHONETIC function

Text:    Extracts the phonetic (furigana) characters from a text string

PI function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the value of pi

PMT function

Financial:    Returns the periodic payment for an annuity

POISSON.DIST function

Statistical:    Returns the Poisson distribution

POISSON function

Compatibility:    Returns the Poisson distribution

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

POWER function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the result of a number raised to a power

PPMT function

Financial:    Returns the payment on the principal for an investment for a given period

PRICE function

Financial:    Returns the price per $100 face value of a security that pays periodic interest

PRICEDISC function

Financial:    Returns the price per $100 face value of a discounted security

PRICEMAT function

Financial:    Returns the price per $100 face value of a security that pays interest at maturity

PROB function

Statistical:    Returns the probability that values in a range are between two limits

PRODUCT function

Math and trigonometry:    Multiplies its arguments

PROPER function

Text:    Capitalizes the first letter in each word of a text value

PV function

Financial:    Returns the present value of an investment

QUARTILE function

Compatibility:    Returns the quartile of a data set

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

QUARTILE.EXC function

Statistical:    Returns the quartile of the data set, based on percentile values from 0..1, exclusive

QUARTILE.INC function

Statistical:    Returns the quartile of a data set

QUOTIENT function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the integer portion of a division

RADIANS function

Math and trigonometry:    Converts degrees to radians

RAND function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns a random number between 0 and 1

RANDARRAY function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns an array of random numbers between 0 and 1. However, you can specify the number of rows and columns to fill, minimum and maximum values, and whether to return whole numbers or decimal values.

RANDBETWEEN function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns a random number between the numbers you specify

RANK.AVG function

Statistical:    Returns the rank of a number in a list of numbers

RANK.EQ function

Statistical:    Returns the rank of a number in a list of numbers

RANK function

Compatibility:    Returns the rank of a number in a list of numbers

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

RATE function

Financial:    Returns the interest rate per period of an annuity

RECEIVED function

Financial:    Returns the amount received at maturity for a fully invested security

REDUCE

Logical:    Reduces an array to an accumulated value by applying a LAMBDA to each value and returning the total value in the accumulator

REGISTER.ID function

Add-in and Automation:    Returns the register ID of the specified dynamic link library (DLL) or code resource that has been previously registered

REPLACE, REPLACEB functions

Text:    Replaces characters within text

REPT function

Text:    Repeats text a given number of times

RIGHT, RIGHTB functions

Text:    Returns the rightmost characters from a text value

ROMAN function

Math and trigonometry:    Converts an arabic numeral to roman, as text

ROUND function

Math and trigonometry:    Rounds a number to a specified number of digits

ROUNDDOWN function

Math and trigonometry:    Rounds a number down, toward zero

ROUNDUP function

Math and trigonometry:    Rounds a number up, away from zero

ROW function

Lookup and reference:    Returns the row number of a reference

ROWS function

Lookup and reference:    Returns the number of rows in a reference

RRI function

Financial:    Returns an equivalent interest rate for the growth of an investment

RSQ function

Statistical:    Returns the square of the Pearson product moment correlation coefficient

RTD function

Lookup and reference:    Retrieves real-time data from a program that supports COM automation

SCAN

Logical:    Scans an array by applying a LAMBDA to each value and returns an array that has each intermediate value

SEARCH, SEARCHB functions

Text:    Finds one text value within another (not case-sensitive)

SEC function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the secant of an angle

SECH function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the hyperbolic secant of an angle

SECOND function

Date and time:    Converts a serial number to a second

SEQUENCE function

Math and trigonometry:    Generates a list of sequential numbers in an array, such as 1, 2, 3, 4

SERIESSUM function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the sum of a power series based on the formula

SHEET function

Information:    Returns the sheet number of the referenced sheet

SHEETS function

Information:    Returns the number of sheets in a reference

SIGN function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the sign of a number

SIN function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the sine of the given angle

SINH function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the hyperbolic sine of a number

SKEW function

Statistical:    Returns the skewness of a distribution

SKEW.P function

Statistical:    Returns the skewness of a distribution based on a population: a characterization of the degree of asymmetry of a distribution around its mean

SLN function

Financial:    Returns the straight-line depreciation of an asset for one period

SLOPE function

Statistical:    Returns the slope of the linear regression line

SMALL function

Statistical:    Returns the k-th smallest value in a data set

SORT function

Lookup and reference:    Sorts the contents of a range or array

SORTBY function

Lookup and reference:    Sorts the contents of a range or array based on the values in a corresponding range or array

SQRT function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns a positive square root

SQRTPI function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the square root of (number * pi)

STANDARDIZE function

Statistical:    Returns a normalized value

STOCKHISTORY function

Financial:    Retrieves historical data about a financial instrument

STDEV function

Compatibility:    Estimates standard deviation based on a sample

STDEV.P function

Statistical:    Calculates standard deviation based on the entire population

STDEV.S function

Statistical:    Estimates standard deviation based on a sample

STDEVA function

Statistical:    Estimates standard deviation based on a sample, including numbers, text, and logical values

STDEVP function

Compatibility:    Calculates standard deviation based on the entire population

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

STDEVPA function

Statistical:    Calculates standard deviation based on the entire population, including numbers, text, and logical values

STEYX function

Statistical:    Returns the standard error of the predicted y-value for each x in the regression

SUBSTITUTE function

Text:    Substitutes new text for old text in a text string

SUBTOTAL function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns a subtotal in a list or database

SUM function

Math and trigonometry:    Adds its arguments

SUMIF function

Math and trigonometry:    Adds the cells specified by a given criteria

SUMIFS function

Math and trigonometry:    Adds the cells in a range that meet multiple criteria

SUMPRODUCT function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the sum of the products of corresponding array components

SUMSQ function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the sum of the squares of the arguments

SUMX2MY2 function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the sum of the difference of squares of corresponding values in two arrays

SUMX2PY2 function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the sum of the sum of squares of corresponding values in two arrays

SUMXMY2 function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the sum of squares of differences of corresponding values in two arrays

SWITCH function

Logical:    Evaluates an expression against a list of values and returns the result corresponding to the first matching value. If there is no match, an optional default value may be returned.

SYD function

Financial:    Returns the sum-of-years’ digits depreciation of an asset for a specified period

T function

Text:    Converts its arguments to text

TAN function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the tangent of a number

TANH function

Math and trigonometry:    Returns the hyperbolic tangent of a number

TAKE

Lookup and reference:    Returns a specified number of contiguous rows or columns from the start or end of an array

TBILLEQ function

Financial:    Returns the bond-equivalent yield for a Treasury bill

TBILLPRICE function

Financial:    Returns the price per $100 face value for a Treasury bill

TBILLYIELD function

Financial:    Returns the yield for a Treasury bill

T.DIST function

Statistical:    Returns the Percentage Points (probability) for the Student t-distribution

T.DIST.2T function

Statistical:    Returns the Percentage Points (probability) for the Student t-distribution

T.DIST.RT function

Statistical:    Returns the Student’s t-distribution

TDIST function

Compatibility:    Returns the Student’s t-distribution

TEXT function

Text:    Formats a number and converts it to text

TEXTAFTER

Text:    Returns text that occurs after given character or string

TEXTBEFORE

Text:    Returns text that occurs before a given character or string

TEXTJOIN

Text:    Combines the text from multiple ranges and/or strings

TEXTSPLIT

Text:    Splits text strings by using column and row delimiters

TIME function

Date and time:    Returns the serial number of a particular time

TIMEVALUE function

Date and time:    Converts a time in the form of text to a serial number

T.INV function

Statistical:    Returns the t-value of the Student’s t-distribution as a function of the probability and the degrees of freedom

T.INV.2T function

Statistical:    Returns the inverse of the Student’s t-distribution

TINV function

Compatibility:    Returns the inverse of the Student’s t-distribution

TOCOL

Lookup and reference:    Returns the array in a single column

TOROW

Lookup and reference:    Returns the array in a single row

TODAY function

Date and time:    Returns the serial number of today’s date

TRANSPOSE function

Lookup and reference:    Returns the transpose of an array

TREND function

Statistical:    Returns values along a linear trend

TRIM function

Text:    Removes spaces from text

TRIMMEAN function

Statistical:    Returns the mean of the interior of a data set

TRUE function

Logical:    Returns the logical value TRUE

TRUNC function

Math and trigonometry:    Truncates a number to an integer

T.TEST function

Statistical:    Returns the probability associated with a Student’s t-test

TTEST function

Compatibility:    Returns the probability associated with a Student’s t-test

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

TYPE function

Information:    Returns a number indicating the data type of a value

UNICHAR function

Text:    Returns the Unicode character that is references by the given numeric value

UNICODE function

Text:    Returns the number (code point) that corresponds to the first character of the text

UNIQUE function

Lookup and reference:    Returns a list of unique values in a list or range

UPPER function

Text:    Converts text to uppercase

VALUE function

Text:    Converts a text argument to a number

VALUETOTEXT

Text:    Returns text from any specified value

VAR function

Compatibility:    Estimates variance based on a sample

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

VAR.P function

Statistical:    Calculates variance based on the entire population

VAR.S function

Statistical:    Estimates variance based on a sample

VARA function

Statistical:    Estimates variance based on a sample, including numbers, text, and logical values

VARP function

Compatibility:    Calculates variance based on the entire population

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

VARPA function

Statistical:    Calculates variance based on the entire population, including numbers, text, and logical values

VDB function

Financial:    Returns the depreciation of an asset for a specified or partial period by using a declining balance method

VLOOKUP function

Lookup and reference:    Looks in the first column of an array and moves across the row to return the value of a cell

VSTACK

Look and reference:    Appends arrays vertically and in sequence to return a larger array

WEBSERVICE function

Web:    Returns data from a web service.

This function is not available in Excel for the web.

WEEKDAY function

Date and time:    Converts a serial number to a day of the week

WEEKNUM function

Date and time:    Converts a serial number to a number representing where the week falls numerically with a year

WEIBULL function

Compatibility:    Calculates variance based on the entire population, including numbers, text, and logical values

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

WEIBULL.DIST function

Statistical:    Returns the Weibull distribution

WORKDAY function

Date and time:    Returns the serial number of the date before or after a specified number of workdays

WORKDAY.INTL function

Date and time:    Returns the serial number of the date before or after a specified number of workdays using parameters to indicate which and how many days are weekend days

WRAPCOLS

Look and reference:    Wraps the provided row or column of values by columns after a specified number of elements

WRAPROWS

Look and reference:    Wraps the provided row or column of values by rows after a specified number of elements

XIRR function

Financial:    Returns the internal rate of return for a schedule of cash flows that is not necessarily periodic

XLOOKUP function

Lookup and reference:    Searches a range or an array, and returns an item corresponding to the first match it finds. If a match doesn’t exist, then XLOOKUP can return the closest (approximate) match. 

XMATCH function

Lookup and reference:    Returns the relative position of an item in an array or range of cells. 

XNPV function

Financial:    Returns the net present value for a schedule of cash flows that is not necessarily periodic

XOR function

Logical:    Returns a logical exclusive OR of all arguments

YEAR function

Date and time:    Converts a serial number to a year

YEARFRAC function

Date and time:    Returns the year fraction representing the number of whole days between start_date and end_date

YIELD function

Financial:    Returns the yield on a security that pays periodic interest

YIELDDISC function

Financial:    Returns the annual yield for a discounted security; for example, a Treasury bill

YIELDMAT function

Financial:    Returns the annual yield of a security that pays interest at maturity

Z.TEST function

Statistical:    Returns the one-tailed probability-value of a z-test

ZTEST function

Compatibility:    Returns the one-tailed probability-value of a z-test

In Excel 2007, this is a Statistical function.

Here you will find a detailed tutorial on 100+ Excel Functions & VBA Functions. Each Excel function is covered in detail with Examples and Videos.

Excel Functions – Date and Time

Excel Function	Description
Excel DATE Function	Excel DATE function can be used when you want to get the date value using the year, month and, day values as the input arguments. It returns a serial number that represents a specific date in Excel.
​Excel DATEVALUE Function	Excel DATEVALUE function is best suited for situations when a date is stored as text. This function converts the date from text format to a serial number that Excel recognizes as a date.
Excel DAY Function	Excel DAY function can be used when you want to get the day value (ranging between 1 to 31) from a specified date. It returns a value between 0 and 31 depending on the date used as the input.
Excel HOUR Function	Excel HOUR function can be used when you want to get the HOUR integer value from a specified time value. It returns a value between 0 (12:00 A.M.) and 23 (11:00 P.M.) depending on the time value used as the input
Excel MINUTE Function	Excel MINUTE function can be used when you want to get the MINUTE integer value from a specified time value. It returns a value between 0 and 59 depending on the time value used as the input.
Excel NETWORKDAYS Function	Excel NETWORKDAYS function can be used when you want to get the number of working days between two given dates. It does not count the weekends between the specified dates (by default the weekend is Saturday and Sunday). It can also exclude any specified holidays.
Excel NETWORKDAYS.INTL Function	Excel NETWORKDAYS.INTL function can be used when you want to get the number of working days between two given dates. It does not count the weekends and holidays, both of which can be specified by the user. It also enables you to specify the weekend (for example, you can specify Friday and Saturday as the weekend, or only Sunday as the weekend).
Excel NOW Function	Excel NOW function can be used to get the current date and time value.
Excel SECOND Function	Excel SECOND function can be used want to get the integer value of the seconds from a specified time value. It returns a value between 0 and 59 depending on the time value used as the input.
Excel TODAY Function	Excel TODAY function can be used to get the current date. It returns a serial number that represents the current date.
Excel WEEKDAY Function	Excel WEEKDAY function can be used to get the day of the week as a number for the specified date. It returns a number between 1 and 7 that represents the corresponding day of the week.
Excel WORKDAY Function	Excel WORKDAY function can be used when you want to get the date after a given number of working days. By default, it takes Saturday and Sunday as the weekend
Excel WORKDAY.INTL Function	Excel WORKDAY.INTL function can be used when you want to get the date after a given number of working days. In this function, you can specify the weekend to be days other than Saturday and Sunday.
Excel DATEDIF Function	Excel DATEDIF function can be used when you want to calculate the number of years, months, or days between the two specified dates. A good example would be calculating the age.

Excel Functions – Logical

Excel Function	Description
Excel AND Function	Excel AND function can be used when you want to check multiple conditions. It returns TRUE only when all the given conditions are true.
Excel FALSE Function	Excel FALSE function returns the logical value FALSE. It does not take any input arguments.
Excel IF Function	Excel IF Function is best suited for situations where you want to evaluate a condition, and the return a value if it is TRUE and another value if it is FALSE.
Excel IFS Function	Excel IFS Function is best suited for situations where you want to test multiple conditions at once and then return the result based on it. This is helpful as you don’t have to create long nested IF formulas that can get confusing.
Excel IFERROR Function	Excel IFERROR function is best-suited to handle formula that evaluates to an error. You can specify a value to show if the formula returns an error.
Excel NOT Function	Excel NOT function can be used when you want to reverse the value of a logical argument (TRUE/FALSE).
Excel OR Function	Excel OR function can be used when you want to check multiple conditions. It returns TRUE if any of the given condition is true.
Excel TRUE Function	Excel TRUE function returns the logical value TRUE. It does not take any input arguments.

Excel Functions – Lookup & Reference

Excel Function	Description
Excel COLUMN Function	Excel COLUMN function can be used when you want to get the column number of a specified cell.
Excel COLUMNS Function	Excel COLUMNS function can be used when you want to get the number of columns in a specified range or array. It returns a number that represents the total number of columns in the specified range or array.
Excel HLOOKUP Function	Excel HLOOKUP function is best suited for situations when you are looking for a matching data point in a row, and when the matching data point is found, you go down that column and fetch a value from a cell which is specified a number of rows below the top row.
Excel INDEX Function	Excel INDEX function can be used when you have the position (row number and column number) of a value in a table, and you want to fetch that value. This is often use with the MATCH function and is a powerful alternative to the VLOOKUP function.
Excel INDIRECT Function	Excel INDIRECT function can be used when you have the references as text and you want to get the values from those references. It returns the reference specified by the text string.
Excel MATCH Function	Excel MATCH function can be used when you want to get the relative position of a lookup value in a list or an array. It returns a number that represents the position of the lookup value in the array.
Excel OFFSET Function	Excel OFFSET function can be used when you want to get a reference which offsets specified number of rows and columns from the starting point. It returns the reference that OFFSET function points to.
Excel ROW Function	Excel ROW Function function can be used when you want to get the row number of a cell reference. For example, =ROW(B4) would return 4, as it is in the fourth row.
Excel ROWS Function	Excel ROWS Function can be used when you want to get the number of rows in a specified range or array. It returns a number that represents the total number of rows in the specified range or array.
Excel VLOOKUP Function	Excel VLOOKUP function is best suited for situations when you are looking for a matching data point in a column, and when the matching data point is found, you go to the right in that row and fetch a value from a cell which is a specified number of columns to the right.
Excel XLOOKUP Function	Excel XLOOKUP function is a new function for Office 365 users and is an enhanced version of the VLOOKUP/HLOOKUP functions. It can be used to lookup and fetch the value in a dataset, and can replace most of what we do with older lookup formulas.
Excel FILTER Function	Excel FILTER function is a new function for Office 365 users that allows you to quickly filter and extract data based on the given condition (or multiple conditions).

Excel Functions – Math

Excel Function	Description
Excel INT Function	Excel INT Function can be used when you want to get the integer portion of a number.
Excel MOD Function	Excel MOD function can be used when you want to get the remainder when one number is divided by another. It returns a numerical value that represents the remainder when one number is divided by another.
Excel RAND Function	Excel RAND function can be used when you want to generate evenly distributed random numbers between 0 and 1. It returns a number between 0 and 1
Excel RANDBETWEEN Function	Excel RANDBETWEEN function can be used when you want to generate evenly distributed random numbers between a top and bottom range specified by the user. It returns a number between the top and bottom range specified by the user.
Excel ROUND Function	Excel ROUND function can be used when you want to return a number rounded to a specified number of digits.
Excel SUM Function	Excel SUM function can be used to add all numbers in a range of cells.
Excel SUMIF Function	Excel SUMIF function can be used when you want to add the values in a range if the specified condition is met.
Excel SUMIFS Function	Excel SUMIFS function can be used when you want to add the values in a range if multiple specified criteria are met.
Excel SUMPRODUCT Function	Excel SUMPRODUCT function can be used when you want to first multiply two or more sets to arrays and then get its sum

Excel Functions – Statistics

Excel Function	Description
Excel RANK Function	Excel RANK function can be used when you want to rank a number against a list of numbers. It returns a number that represents the relative rank of the number against the list of numbers.
Excel AVERAGE Function	Excel AVERAGE function can be used when you want to get the average (arithmetic mean) of the specified arguments.
Excel AVERAGEIF Function	Excel AVERAGEIF function can be used when you want to get the average (arithmetic mean) of all the values in a range of cells that meet a given criteria.
Excel AVERAGEIFS Function	Excel AVERAGEIFS function can be used when you want to get the average (arithmetic mean) of all the cells in a range that meets multiple criteria.
Excel COUNT Function	Excel COUNT function can be used to count the number of cells that contain numbers.
Excel COUNTA Function	Excel COUNTA function can be used when you want to count all the cells in a range that are not empty.
Excel COUNTBLANK Function	Excel COUNTBALNK function can be used when you have to count all the empty cells in a range.
Excel COUNTIF Function	Excel COUNTIF function can be used when you want to count the number of cells that meet a specified criterion.
Excel COUNTIFS Function	Excel COUNTIFS function can be used when you want to count the number of cells that meet a single or multiple criteria.
Excel LARGE Function	Excel LARGE function can be used to get the Kth largest value from a range of cells or array. For example, you can get the third largest value from a range of cells.
Excel MAX Function	Excel MAX function can be used when you want to get the largest value from a set of values.
Excel MIN Function	Excel MIN function can be used when you want to get the smallest value from a set of values.
Excel SMALL Function	Excel SMALL function can be used to get the Kth smallest value from a range of cells or array. For example, you can get the third smallestvalue from a range of cells.

​Excel Functions – Text Functions

Excel Function	Description
Excel CONCATENATE Function	Excel CONCATENATE function can be used when you want to join 2 or more characters or strings. It can be used to join text, numbers, cell references, or a combination of these.
Excel FIND Function	Excel FIND function can be used when you want to locate a text string within another text string and find its position. It returns a number that represents the starting position of the string you are finding in another string. It is case-sensitive.
Excel LEFT Function	Excel LEFT function can be used to extract text from left of the string. It returns the specified number of characters from the left of the string
Excel LEN Function	Excel LEN function can be used when you want to get the total number of characters in a specified string. This is useful when you want to know the length of a string in a cell.
Excel LOWER Function	Excel LOWER function can be used when you want to convert all uppercase letter in a text string to lowercase. Numbers, special characters, and punctuations are not changed by the LOWER function.
Excel MID Function	Excel MID function can be used to extract a specified number of characters from a string. It returns the sub-string from a string.
Excel PROPER Function	Excel PROPER function can be used when you want to capitalize the first character of every word. Numbers, special characters, and punctuations are not changed by the PROPER function.
Excel REPLACE Function	Excel REPLACE function can be used when you want to replace a part of the text string with another string. It returns a text string where a part of the text has been replaced by the specified string.
Excel REPT Function	Excel REPT function can be used when you want to repeat a specified text a certain number of times.
Excel RIGHT Function	The RIGHT function can be used to extract text from the right of the string. It returns the specified number of characters from the right of the string
Excel SEARCH Function	Excel SEARCH function can be used when you want to locate a text string within another text string and find its position. It returns a number that represents the starting position of the string you are finding in another string. It is NOT case-sensitive.
Excel SUBSTITUTE Function ​	Excel SUBSTITUTE function can be used when you want to substitute text with new specified text in a string. It returns a text string where an old text has been substituted by the new one.
Excel TEXT Function	Excel TEXT function can be used when you want to convert a number to text format and display it in a specified format.
Excel TRIM Function	Excel TRIM function can be used when you want to remove leading, trailing, and double spaces in Excel.
Excel UPPER Function	Excel UPPER function can be used when you want to convert all lowercase letters in a text string to uppercase. Numbers, special characters, and punctuations are not changed by the UPPER function.

Excel Functions – Info

Excel Function	Description
Excel ISBLANK Function Excel ISERROR Function Excel ISNA Function Excel ISNUMBER Function Excel ISEVEN Function Excel ISODD Function Excel ISLOGICAL Function Excel ISTEXT Function	Excel IS function returns TRUE when specified condition is TRUE. For example, ISNA would return TRUE if the cell has a #N/A! error.

Excel Functions – Financial

Excel Function	Description
​Excel PMT Function	Excel PMT function helps you calculate the payment you need to make for a loan when you know the total loan amount, interest rate, and the number of constant payments.
Excel NPV Function	Excel NPV function allows you to calculate the Net Present Value of all the cashflows when you know the discount rate
Excel IRR Function	Excel IRR function allows you to calculate the Internal Rate of Return when you have the cashflows data

VBA Functions

Excel Function	Description
VBA TRIM Function	VBA TRIM function allows you to remove the leading and trailing spaces from a text string in Excel. It can be a useful VBA function if you want to quickly clean the data.
VBA SPLIT Function	VBA SPLIT function alllows you to split a text string based on the delimiter. For example, if you want to split text based on a comma or tab or colon, you can do that with the SPLIT function.
VBA MsgBox Function	VBA MsgBox is a function that displays a dialog box that you can use to inform your users by showing a custom message or get some basic inputs (such as Yes/No or OK/Cancel).
VBA INSTR Function	VBA InStr function finds the position of a specified substring within the string and returns the first position of its occurrence.
VBA UCase Function	Excel VBA UCASE function takes a string as the input and converts all the lower case characters into upper case.
VBA LCase Function	Excel VBA LCASE function takes a string as the input and converts all the upper case characters into lower case.
VBA DIR Function	Use VBA DIR function when you want to get the name of the file or a folder, using their path name

Useful Excel Resources:

• 100+ Excel Interview Questions
• 200+ Excel Keyboard Shortcuts
• Free Excel Templates
• Free Online Excel Training
• Best Excel Books
• Excel Formulas Not Working: Possible Reasons and How to FIX IT!
• 20 Advanced Excel Functions and Formulas (for Excel Pros)
• Formula vs Function in Excel – What’s the Difference?

41 EXCEL EXPERTS WEIGH IN

Brought to You by AutomateExcel.com

Microsoft Excel has hundreds of functions. Even experienced Excel users can find themselves wondering if they are using the best Excel formulas for their projects.

With that in mind, we polled 41 Excel experts and asked them the question: What is the most under-used Excel function? Their answers are listed below.

Want to master the 30 most-used Excel Functions?

CHOOSE Function — 4 Votes

The CHOOSE function was my vote for the most under-used Excel function. It’s easy to understand and very powerful. CHOOSE allows you to select one of up to 254 values or options based on an index number. — Michael from Excel Bytes.

As John from How to Excel implies, this might not sound like much, but in the right circumstance it can be very powerful: I remember when I first met CHOOSE. I thought to myself, «Wow, what a boring function. All it does is choose an item in your list based on an index number. Doesn’t INDEX already do that?» It looks like a very simple function at the outset, but when you combine it with other formulas it can be quite powerful.

My favorite use of the CHOOSE Functions is this: Let’s say you have 4 worksheets: a Forecast sheet, a Budget sheet, a Trailing 12 sheet, and a Summary sheet. On the Summary sheet, you use drop-downs to select which sheet’s data to show:

In the above example, the CHOOSE function allows you to read data from one of three sheets. Cell F$1 contains a MATCH function that looks to see what option was selected from the drop-down (drop-down currently reads «Budget») and returns the corresponding number, which is used by the CHOOSE function. You can see that by using the CHOOSE function you can select values from different sheets, while avoiding volatile functions like INDIRECT.

Lookup Formulas — VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, INDEX, and MATCH — 5 Total Votes

The lookup functions are hands-down some of the most important Excel functions. You can’t claim to be an Excel expert without being proficient with these.

VLOOKUP & HLOOKUP

Laurent from ExcelMadeEasy says this about the Vlookup: Looking for data in a specific column, row, or a full table? Excel has a solution in the form of VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP functions.

The VLOOKUP allows you to search for a value in a column («V» for vertical) and return another value from that same row. The HLOOKUP allows you to search for a value in a row («H» for «horizontal») and return another value from that same column.

The VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP have two big limitations:

• The lookup column must be the left-most column in the data (or top-most row for a HLOOKUP). Often your data will not come in this format.
• In large workbooks, these lookup functions can take a very long time to run. Ole from Erlandsen Data Consulting says this: A little bit off-topic, but here is a function that I think is sometimes over-used or used in a wrong way: VLOOKUP.  This function is extremely useful, but can sometimes cause the calculations in a workbook to slow down to a crawl when used with large data sources and/or in a lot of cells. An example: a workbook that took 5-10 minutes to calculate because of excessive use of the VLOOKUP function, took 7 seconds to calculate after sorting the data sources and replacing VLOOKUP with MATCH and INDEX functions.

NDEX & MATCH

The MATCH function looks up a value in an array of cells and returns the position # where that value is found.

The INDEX function returns a value from an array of cells based on the provided position #.

Together these functions can be used to simulate a VLOOKUP, only with more flexibility. Othniel from Excellent Ones Consulting says this These two functions together are more powerful than the traditional VLOOKUP In a VLOOKUP formula the field to be matched must be in the first column of your data set. Using a combination of Index and match removes those limitation. This adds more flexibility to the user.

Alan from ComputerGaga notes some other advanced uses of the INDEX function: However other awesome uses include to return the last value from a row or column, to create dynamic ranges and its use with form controls for interactive charts and dashboards.

Match Multiple Criteria with a Formula

These functions also allow you to match multiple criteria. However, the formula is quite complicated!

Marcus Small explains My favourite function to rip out in any of my courses is the combination of INDEX, MATCH, and INDEX. This powerful three part formula allows you to return a match based on multiple criteria. It avoids the concatenation of data with the inevitable use of VLOOKUP and it does not need to be in the form of an array formulation. One caveat, I only use this formula when I am wanting to return TEXT based on multiple criteria, as Excel has SUMIFS and SUMPRODUCT available to deal with multi criteria calculation returns. Quite simply it is formulaic brilliance!!!
The syntax is
Index(result column, match(1, index((criteria range=criteria)*(criteria range2 =criteria2),0),0))

The formula works as it is attempting to match the true condition to the specified criteria. In the above example there is 2 criteria however you could have 3, 4, 5 etc. The secret lies in the 1 part of the MATCH formula. If a match is made in the second INDEX, Excel produces a 1, if no match to the corresponding cell in the second INDEX criteria, Excel produces a zero, so 1 x 0 = 0. Excel continues until 2 matches are made 1 x 1 = 1 and the row where this occurs is then pushed into the first INDEX formula (INDEX(Result Column) to return the value of the row in the result column. It is a marvellous formula which can easily be extended with little effort. Here is 3 criteria:

Index(result column, match(1, index((criteria range=criteria)*(criteria range2 =criteria2)*(criteria range3 =criteria3),0),0))

Now the structure of a file can be preserved without resorting to adding a column to concatenate data so it can be used as LOOKUP criteria.

IFERROR Function — 3 Votes

IFERROR was one of my top choices for the most under-used function in Excel. It’s easy to use, and makes your spreadsheets look much more professional.

Janet from Savvy Spreadsheets describes it’s usefulness: I’ve seen too many reports with ugly # errors in them. The IFERROR function can be wrapped around a formula to quickly and easily hide those errors, by returning something else such as a blank or zero.

If you submit a spreadsheet to a client or superior filled with formula errors, it makes you look bad. Did you even review those errors? Are they valid errors or not? IFERROR makes a huge difference in how the quality of your work is perceived.

Joe from Excel by Joe describes how to use it: IFERROR is very easy to set up and it can easily eliminate all error messages from your function results. I use it all the time when building spreadsheets. To use it, simply insert whatever function you have written into the first part of the IFERROR and then put a comma and then enter what you want shown if there’s an error. For example, if you want to display a zero whenever your function, A1/A2 has an error, use this code : =IFERROR(A1/A2,0)

Zach from Data Automation Professionals notes that IFERROR was a new function for Excel 2007. Microsoft added this function to save you the hassle of using =IF(ISERROR( and needing to enter the same formula twice.

SUMPRODUCT Function — 3 Votes

The SUMPRODUCT Function sums the products of multiple arrays. The simplest example is calculating total sales revenue based on # of Units Sold and Price per Unit:

SUMPRODUCT can also be used to perform advanced calculations. By creating columns with 1 or 0, you can create «if» conditions where records are only counted if they meet certain criteria (note: multiplying by 0 excludes the record from the SUMPRODUCT, multiplying by 1 includes it). As Ashish says, SUMPRODUCT allows one to specify multiple AND/OR conditions. My Excel Online notes that: this technique is like using SUMIFS on steroids.

Glen from Need a Spreadsheet is right when he says, It takes a while to get your head around SUMPRODUCT, but when you do it gives you enormous power and flexibility.

CONCATENATE, CONCAT, & TEXTJOIN Functions — 2 Votes

Juan from Excel MOOC and Mourad from Excel-Translator voted for CONCATENATE / CONCAT. The CONCATENATE function merges strings of text together. The CONCAT function is a newer version that does the same thing except with a shorter name (less typing the better!). Here is an example of merging text with a space (» «) in between:

The big downside to CONCATENATE is that you can’t merge an array of cells together. Instead, you must manually select each cell to merge.  Microsoft fixed this problem with the new (for Excel 2016) function: TEXTJOIN:

Notice the syntax: First you enter the deliminator (we chose a space » «). Next you enter TRUE/FALSE to decide if blank cells are counted, and last you enter the range to merge.

SIGN Function — 2 Votes

From Amiq Khan’s blog: The Excel SIGN function checks the sign of a number and gives result of 1 if the number is positive, 0 if number is zero and -1 if the number is negative.

When would you use this?

Bill Jelen is a big fan of using the SIGN Function with the Up/Flat/Down icon set:

Bill says: In Row 1, negative numbers like -24 in I1 get an up indicator. Use the SIGN Function to make sure you only get 1,0, or -1 and the icons behave.

SUMIFS & More — 2 Votes

Alex Powers from It’s Not About the Cell and Joseph from Spreadsheets Made Easy both voted for the SUMIFS, COUNTIFS, and, AVERAGEIFS Functions. These functions allow you to perform the desired calculations (sum, count, or average), only on data that meet certain criteria.

Also, new for Excel 2016 are the MAXIFS and MINIFS Functions (a life-saver for some of the work that I’ve done).

Alex and Joseph also noted that you can transform the basic SUM Function into a much more powerful SUMIFS with the use of «array» functions. Array functions are sometimes referred to as CSE (CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER) functions because when you enter the functions you must type CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER. With array functions, you can perform very complicated calculations, however they can be hard to create (or follow) for all but the most advanced Excel users. With that in mind, we won’t cover an example.

TEXT Function — 2 Votes

The TEXT Function allows you to display a number stored as text in a specified number format.

Brad Edgar described this example: In cell A1 you have the date 04-OCT-2017 and you want to reference that date in a string of text:

=»Today’s date is: » & A1

By default, Excel will show «Today’s date is: 43012» (43012 is the serial number corresponding to that date). Instead, to show the nicely formatted date use the TEXT Function:
=»Today’s date is: » & TEXT(A1,»DD-MMM-YYYY»)

Steve=True from Excel Dashboard Templates had another example:

If you want to display a number with leading zeroes (ex. a ZIP code):

IF and IFS (New for Excel 2016) — 2 Votes

The IF function is ubiquitous in all of coding, as Alex discusses here. It tests if a condition is met. If so, it does something, if not it does something else. You won’t get very far with Excel (or any coding language) without understanding this common function.

New for Excel 2016, Microsoft released the IFS function. Nick from Excel Spreadsheet Help says: With the IFS function you can now simplify one of the most common uses of the IF function: the dreaded nested IFs. If you use Excel frequently then at some point you’ve probably had to create a crazy long formula with multiple IF functions where it’s difficult to keep track of all the logic and commas. With the release of Excel 2016, the IFS function provides the same results as a nested IF formula but with a much simpler and easy to read method. IFS may be one of the most under-used Excel functions for now because it’s so new, but I think it’s use is going to spread rapidly once Excel users are aware of it existence!

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CONVERT — 2 Votes

From Charlie at Engineer Excel: CONVERT is a really efficient way to convert many different quantities like length, mass, volume, etc. between different sets of units. I find that many people (myself included before I found this function) «hard code» numbers into their spreadsheets in order to convert between unit systems. The CONVERT function eliminates the need to do that.

Kawser from Exceldemy provides a good example: Say I want to convert 100 Tones to Stones. See the image below.

It’s easy to convert almost any unit to other relevant unit using this Excel function.

SUBTOTAL Function — 1 Votes

Ben from Excel Exposure voted for the SUBTOTAL function saying: People generally don’t know what it does, or how to use it. Even while praising it now myself, I realize I don’t use it enough.

The SUBTOTAL Functions allows you to perform different calculations on a data set. You can see the list of options when you enter the function into Excel:

You might be asking yourself, why wouldn’t you just use the AVERAGE function if you want to average or the COUNT function if you want to count?

You would use SUBTOTAL when you might change which calculation you wish to view. For example, you create a summary sheet to summarize a very large data set. You create a drop-down to select what information to show. Without using the SUBTOTAL function, you would need to create each calculation individually, and the drop-down would select which to show. With SUBTOTAL, you can create one formula that reads the drop-down and performs the appropriate calculation.

The SUBTOTAL function can reduce your calculation speed and reduce the number of formulas needed.

DOLLARDE and DOLLARFR — 1 Votes

Vijay from E for Excel says: Though designed as financial functions, these perform great conversion routines. I, very often, use them for time to decimal conversions. For example, 1:30 hours is 1.5 hours in decimal.
=DOLLARDE(1.30,60)

To convert it back to 1:30
=DOLLARFR(1.5,60)
(Note, it converts decimals not time value i.e. why 1.3 has been used to convert into 1.5. Though the same you can achieve through multiplying by 24 in case of DOLLARDE and divide by 24 for DOLLARFR. Hence 1:30/24 will give 1.5 and 1.5/24 will give 1:30)

The impact is even more strong once you perform other odd conversions

Convert 6 feet 6 inches
=DOLLARDE(6.06,12)
Which is 6.5 i.e. 6 and half feet

Similarily 6.3 is 6.5 dozen if =DOLLARDE(6.5,6) i.e. 6 and half dozen

So, you can perform many odd conversions which can not be done by CONVERT function.

Date Functions — 1 `Votes

Erin from Time Saving Templates suggested the date functions: DAY, MONTH, and YEAR. These functions extract the day, month, or year number from a date. If you work with dates you should know and use these (easy to remember) functions.

I also recommend the EDATE, EOMONTH, and DATE Functions. EDATE and EOMONTH roll dates forward or back a number of months (EOMONTH then returns the last day of that month). DATE is used to create a date from a given day, month or, year.

When entering dates into Excel, use one input cell to provide the starting date or year, and calculate all other dates using these functions. This makes updating spreadsheets monthly or annually a breeze! No more manually editing hard-coded dates!

MMULT Function — 1 `Votes

Earlier we mentioned the SUMPRODUCT function. SUMPRODUCT allows you to sum the products of multiple arrays. The MMULT function can be used in a similar way. Oscar from Get Digital Help says MMULT allows you to do calculations like the SUMPRODUCT function but in a more granular way. SUMPRODUCT lets you multiply and then sum arrays, whereas the MMULT function lets you multiply and sum arrays row-wise or column-wise.

MMULT stands for Matrix Multiplication. If you have a strong math background, you’ll know exactly what it does:

It’s also an Array function (notice the brackets surrounding the formula above), which means you must use CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER when entering the formula.

INDIRECT Function — 1 `Votes

Abhilash from Excel to XL recommended the INDIRECT function. The INDIRECT Function allows you to «indirectly» reference cell ranges by treating the cell range as text.

To reference cell A1:

=INDIRECT(«A1»)

This is useful when you want to use formulas to determine which cell to reference. So instead of hard-coding «A1» into the formula above, you could reference a cell with formulas that output «A1», «B2», etc.  This can be VERY useful when your desired ranges are on different worksheets.

Warning: INDIRECT is a «volatile» function, meaning it re-calculates every time Excel recalculates the workbook. They won’t slow your workbook down if you use a small number of them, but if you have large blocks of INDIRECT functions, you may start to notice a lag.

Often, you can avoid INDIRECTs with smart use of the CHOOSE and INDEX functions (see above).

LEN Function — 1 `Votes

The LEN Function counts the number of characters in a string of text. LEN can be useful when using other text functions such as LEFT, RIGHT, or MID.

Onur from Someka.net makes an outstanding point about using LEN to check for blank cells: LEN is the most reliable way to check blank cells.

Some of you may ask: «Hey, I use =IF(A1=»»,…) method for checking blank cells, why would I need the LEN function? Aren’t they the same?»

I prefer to use LEN for two reasons:

1. When you copy and paste from other applications (word, access) blank cells are not counted as «real blank cells». (read more)
2. Sometimes people enter space, line break, dot, or something similar to a blank cell, whether intentionally or accidentally. The workbooks need to account for this as well.
   
   For these reasons to be on the very safe side I prefer to use LEN. In most cases, =IF(A1=»»,…) will do the work though.

OFFSET Function — 1 `Votes

Ismael from Excelforo voted for the OFFSET function. With the OFFSET function, you reference a cell by «offsetting» a certain number of rows and columns from a starting point. You can also resize the cell range to any number of rows and columns.

I’ve found the OFFSET function be extremely useful when coupled with VBA code that inserts and deletes rows and columns. By using the OFFSET, you can avoid #REF errors that appear when referenced cells are deleted.

Note: OFFSET is a «volatile function». Volatile functions recalculate each time Excel recalculates. If you have too many OFFSET functions, your workbook will slow down.

REPT Function — 1 `Votes

The REPT function allows you to repeat a string of text a certain number of times:

The true value of this function, however, lies in more creative uses as Crispo from CrispExcel points out: Although classified as a text function, REPT function does more than just repeating texts a number of times. For example, REPT is a perfect alternative to the slow calculating and complex Nested IF function. This is because REPT function can also act as a Logical Function returning an empty string if the number to return is zero. This ability to return an empty string makes it a perfect function for leaving comments within a cell instead of using N function.

REPT‘s ability to repeat characters also makes it perfect to create Mirror Charts (see below), Inline charts, Stem & Leaf Plots, Sparkline, star rating template and even the elusive FOMC dot plot chart.

CELL & GET Functions — 1 `Votes

The team at Spreadsheet Detective suggested the GET & CELL functions. The GET function is an old XL4 function that can’t be used in the same way as a normal Excel function. If you’re interested in using this function, here is more information (warning: It’s complicated).

The function can return useful information about a cell: color, row height, and much more. However, all of this can also be accomplished using VBA or some of the functionality can be accomplished with the newer CELL function.

The CELL function can return the following information about a cell:

Simply define the information you want to see and which cell you want to test!

MOD Function — 1 `Votes

The MOD function returns the remainder of two numbers after division.  Why is this useful? You can easily determine odd or even numbered rows (for alternate row shading) and, more generally, split data into separate groups.

Jorge from Power Spreadsheets says: The main reason I find MOD useful is because of how it allows you to break a group of items into different groups. I commonly use MOD in 2 contexts: (i) in conditional formatting formulas, such as formatting alternate rows or columns; or (ii) to classify entries or values into different groups, which allows you to work with subsets or them (for example, working with odd or even numbers, or entries located every nth cell).

GETPIVOTDATA — 1 `Votes

Debra from Contextures.com recommended the GETPIVOTDATA function: A GETPIVOTDATA formula is automatically created if you link to a PivotTable Value cell. Don’t turn that feature off! Learn how to tweak the formula, so it will pull out the pivot table data that you need.

Her site has an excellent page on the GETPIVOTDATA Function. Visit it to learn more.

User-Defined Functions — 1 `Votes

User-Defined Functions (UDFs) are custom functions created in VBA. If Excel doesn’t have a function that you need, you can create your own in VBA. Obviously, VBA isn’t for everyone, but if you are familiar with VBA, you might want to keep UDFs in mind. Jon from Vertex42 talks about UDFs: I think that custom user-defined functions may be underutilized. While there are many reasons why you might not want to use VBA within a spreadsheet, it is pretty simple to create your own add-in and populate it with custom functions that help speed up what you do in Excel. I avoid using custom functions in spreadsheets that I share with other people, but there are many custom functions that I use that allow me to easily do things I might not otherwise be able to do. Using the VB date functions to work with dates prior to 1900 is an example.

Text to Columns — 1 `Votes

Text to Columns isn’t an Excel function, but it is a very powerful Excel tool that can be used instead of using Excel text functions. The team at TestsTestsTests.com says this: Excel users (that don’t know better) can spend hours manually separating and moving data from a single column to adjacent columns using copy/cut and paste or Excel text functions like LEFT, RIGHT, MID, etc.. A column may contain names, surnames, and/or dates of births that needs to be separated. A surprisingly quick and easy way of doing this is to use Text to Columns located in the Data Tools group under the Data tab of the Excel Ribbon. Text to Columns provides multiple options to separate the data, including by delimiters such as spaces or commas, or by a fixed width, allowing you to separate the data visually. This tool becomes especially useful when data is copied and pasted from other applications, such as tables in Microsoft Word, .csv (comma separated values) files, and more.

Flash Fill — 1 `Votes

Just like Text to Columns, Flash Fill isn’t an Excel function, but it is an under-used feature of Excel that can help alleviate the need for complex Excel formulas. The team over at Yoda Learning said this: Simply enter a pattern in the first several cells. Go to Data > Flash Fill (CTRL + E) and Excel will calculate the algorithm for the rest of the column.

Note: Generally, you would use this when you have a column of fully-populated data and you would like to create a second column based off of the first. For example, in the second column you would like to add «test» in front of the text from the first column. Instead of creating a formula to do so, you would manually enter the values in and then go to Flash Fill to populate the rest of the column.

You might notice that Excel suggests this automatically for you. In the Options menu you can toggle whether automatic Flash Fill is enabled or not.

Become an Excel Function Expert

Take our 100% free interactive tutorial on Excel functions. Master the 30 most-used Excel functions!

15 Most Common Excel Functions You Must Know + How to Use Them

15 Most Common Excel Functions You Must Know + How to Use Them

Microsoft Excel is one of the most well-known computer applications. It has changed the way people and companies work with data.

Thus, learning Excel can help with both your career and your personal needs.

Excel runs using functions and there are roughly 500 of them! These range from basic arithmetic to complex statistics.

If you’re a new Excel user, this sheer quantity can be quite daunting.

So we are here to help you! 🤝

We have rounded up 15 of the most common and useful Excel functions that you need to learn. We also prepared a practice workbook for you to follow along with the examples. Download it here.

Let’s get started!

What are Excel functions?

Excel is used to calculate and manipulate numbers and text. To do this, you use formulas!

Formulas are expressions that tell Excel what you want to do with the data. They begin with the equal symbol (=) followed by a combination of operators and functions.

What are operators?

These are symbols that specify the type of calculation you want to perform on the elements of a formula.

For example, to add two numbers, you can type “=1+1” into a cell. Once you hit Enter, Excel will run the formula and return the result which is 2.

Here are some examples of common operators:

Excel automatically treats cell contents that start with (=) as formulas. This also applies when you begin a cell with the plus (+) or minus (-) symbols.

You can bypass this by adding a leading apostrophe (‘). This is how you can show formulas as text like in the table above.

Order of operation and using parentheses in Excel formulas

Generally, Excel follows PEMDAS when calculating formulas. PEMDAS means parentheses first, then exponents, then multiplication and division, then addition and subtraction.

What are functions?

These are predefined processes in Excel. Each function in Excel has a unique name and specific input(s). The function takes these inputs and performs the corresponding calculation.

The inputs or arguments of an Excel function are always enclosed in parentheses.

For example, this is the syntax for the MAX function:

=MAX(number1, [number2], …)

The list of numbers where you want to find the maximum value is placed inside the parentheses.

Using a cell or a range as input

As you learn more about Excel, you’ll find that Excel formulas rarely consist of individual numbers only like in the formula “=1+1”.

Thus, referencing cells is important in Excel and you can learn more by clicking here.

Alright! You’ve just learned how a function in Excel works.

Let’s dive right into the list! 🤿

We will start with basic Excel functions and then move on to more advanced functions.

Basic Math Functions (Beginner Level ★☆☆)

1. SUM

This is the first function in Excel that most new users need. As the name implies, the SUM function adds up all the values in a specified group of cells or range.

Syntax: =SUM(number1, [number2], …)

Try it out in the practice workbook.

If you want to get the total quiz score for each student, you can use the SUM function. In this case, the input range will be all four quiz scores for each student.

1. Type this formula into cell F2:

=SUM(B2:E2)

You can also type “=SUM(B2,C2,D2,E2)” but “=SUM(B2:E2)” is much simpler.

2. Press Enter. Excel then evaluates the formula and the cell returns the number for the total which is 360.

3. Copy this for the rest of the students or drag down the fill handle.

Notice that the SUM function ignores the cells containing text. (“X” meaning the student was unable to take the quiz)

Most of the basic math functions in Excel ignore non-numeric values such as text, date, and time.

2. COUNT

Next up is the COUNT function. It returns the number of cells containing numeric values within the input range.

Syntax: =COUNT(value1, [value2], …)

1. To get the number of quizzes taken by each student, use this formula in cell G2:

=COUNT(B2:E2)

2. Hit Enter and fill in the rows below.

If you would like to include non-numeric values in the count, you can use the COUNTA function. To count the number of blank cells, you can use the COUNTBLANK function.

Learn more about the COUNT function and its variants here.

3. AVERAGE

The average of a list of numbers is just the total divided by how many numbers there are in that list.

This is easy enough to calculate the quiz scores. You already have the SUM and the COUNT of quizzes for each student.

But, it gets even easier using the AVERAGE function in Excel.

Syntax: =AVERAGE (value1, [value2], …)

1. Type this into cell H2:

=AVERAGE(B2:E2)

2. Hit Enter and fill in the rows below.

Logical Functions (Intermediate Level – ★★☆)

Let’s raise the difficulty level a little bit.

A logical function in Excel allows you to make comparisons and use the results to change how a formula calculates.

4. IF

The IF function is a very popular function in Excel and it is actually quite easy to learn.

Syntax: =IF(logical_test, value_if_true, [value_if_false])

This function checks if a logical test is either TRUE or FALSE. It then returns the specified value based on the result.

Using the average score of each student, try to assign PASS or FAIL grades. Assume that the passing score for this class is 60.

1. Begin the formula in cell C2 with “=IF(“

The logical_test is to check if the average score in Column B is greater than or equal to (>=) the passing score of 60.

2. So, the formula becomes:

=IF(B2>=60,

If the comparison returns TRUE, then the formula should return the text “PASS”. Thus, the value_if_true argument should be “PASS”.

And if it returns FALSE, then the value_if_false argument should be “FAIL”.

3. Thus, the formula becomes:

=IF(B2>=60,”PASS”,”FAIL”)

4. Hit Enter and fill in the rows below.

What if you needed to assign grades according to a scale instead of just “PASS” and “FAIL”?

For that, you have to use multiple criteria or logical tests. While this is possible using nested IF functions, it can get messy very quickly. Instead, you can use the IFS function.

5. IFS function

The IFS function was introduced in Excel 2016 to replace nested IF functions.

This function works by evaluating the first logical test or criteria. It returns the corresponding value if it is TRUE. But if it is FALSE, the function proceeds to evaluate the second criteria, and so on.

📖 In other words, the IFS function outputs the value that corresponds to the first specified criteria that is true.

Syntax: =IFS(logical_test1, value_if_true1, [logical_test2], [value_if_true2],..)

1. First, the formula should check if the average score (column B) is above or equal to 90. If yes, it should return “A”.

=IFS(B2>=90,”A”,

2. If not, it should then check if the average score is greater than or equal to 80. If yes, it should return “B”. If you do this up to grade D, the formula becomes:

=IFS(B2>=90,”A”,B2>=80,”B”,B2>=70,”C”,B2>=60,”D”,

3. For the last grade “F”, put “TRUE” for the logical test.

The IFS function will only evaluate the last specified criteria if all of the previous logical values were FALSE. Thus, you can set the last criteria to always be TRUE thus making it a “catch all” statement.

The final formula is then:

=IFS(B2>=90,”A”,B2>=80,”B”,B2>=70,”C”,B2>=60,”D”,TRUE,”F”)

PRO-TIP:

You can use absolute cell references and a reference table when working with long formulas.

That way, you don’t have to revisit all of the arguments in the formula if you need to change some values.

For example, using the table and formula shown below, you can easily change the grading scale in use.

=IFS(B2>=$H$2,$F$2,B2>=$H$3,$F$3,B2>
=$H$4,$F$4,B2>=$H$5,$F$5,TRUE,$F$6)

Text Functions (Intermediate Level – ★★☆)

In this next section, you will see how Excel can also be used to manipulate text.

In the “Class List” worksheet of the practice workbook, the full name of each student is listed in Column A. Your goal is to rearrange these from “first name last name” to “last name_first name” in Column F.

To do this, you first have to extract the first name and the last name from Column A.

6. FIND

The names are separated by a space character ” “. So, you have to identify the position of the space within each text string in Column A.

The FIND function in Excel returns the number or position of a specified character or substring within another text string.

Syntax: =FIND(find_text, within_text, [start_num])

To get the position of the space ” “, type this formula:

=FIND(” “,A2)

Next, take a look at the LEN function.

7. LEN

This function returns the number of characters in a text string.

Syntax: =LEN(text)

To get the number of characters in each student’s name:

=LEN(A2)

Now you can move on to extracting the first and last name using the MID function in Excel.

8. MID

This function extracts a given number of characters from the middle of a text string.

Syntax: = MID(text, start_num, num_chars)

It is one of three text functions that are used to extract text. The other two are LEFT and RIGHT which extract text from the start and end of a text string respectively.

The first name starts at the very first character of the text string. So, you extract starting from position 1. Then the length of the first name is given by the position of the space character minus 1.

So, the formula to extract the first name or first word from a text string is:

=MID(A2,1,B2-1)

Or, you can express it directly using the FIND formula earlier.

=MID(A2,1,FIND(” “,A2)-1)

For the last name, you can extract it starting from the position of the space character plus 1. Its length is just the length of the entire text string minus the position of the space character.

=MID(A2,B2+1,C2-B2)

Or, using the FIND and LEN formulas earlier:

=MID(A2,FIND(” “,A2)+1,LEN(A2)-FIND(” “,A2))

Now you can combine the last name and the first name in the desired order using the CONCAT function.

9. CONCAT

Like IFS, CONCAT is another newly introduced function in Excel 2016. It replaced the old CONCATENATE function.

Syntax: =CONCAT(text1, [text2],…)

Combine the last name and the first name with a comma and space character “, ” in between.

=CONCAT(E2,”, “,D2)

PRO-TIP:

In the above example, you used helper columns for FIND, LEN, and MID to help build the final formula and visualize how it works.

In real-world applications, you can use a single long formula to get the results like this:

=CONCAT(MID(A2,FIND(” “,A2)+1,LEN(A2)
-FIND(” “,A2)),”, “,MID(A2,1,FIND(” “,A2)-1))

Lookup and Reference Functions (Advanced Level – ★★★)

In this final section, we will focus on functions that allow you to look for specific data points and refer to them.

Take a look at the “Schedule” worksheet.

10. COLUMN

The COLUMN function in Excel returns the column number of a given cell.

Syntax: =COLUMN([reference])

Let’s try to assign specific dates for each quiz. For example, you may want the quizzes to be held every Monday. This means that the first quiz date should be offset by 1 week or 7 days for each succeeding quiz date.

You can use the column number to multiply the 7 days offset for each week like this:

=$B$2+(COLUMN()-2)*7

Two (2) is subtracted from the column number so that the sequence starts at 1.

You can also get this result using the much simpler “=B2+7” since you are only adding a fixed number of days to each date. 🤔

But, using the COLUMN function, you can create complex patterns.

Take this pattern for example:

The quizzes are still held every Monday. But every third week, they are held on Wednesday instead.

Here is the formula for this pattern:

=$B$2+(COLUMN()-2)*7+IF(MOD(COLUMN()-1,3)=0,2,0)

The MOD function in Excel returns the remainder after a number is divided by a given divisor. It’s part of the Math & Trig group of functions.

This group includes other fun functions such as ABS which returns the absolute value of a number and ROUND which rounds a number to a specified number of digits.

Learn more about the function groups towards the end of this article!

Kasper Langmann, Microsoft Office Specialist

11. ROW

Next, take a look at the ROW function. It works exactly like COLUMN but it returns the row number instead.

Syntax: =ROW([reference])

In this next example, you will assign the seating plans. You can try different seating arrangements using the ROW function.

Assume R1C1 is the seat closest to the teacher’s desk.

1. You can have the students seated one seat after another and in two columns:

=CONCAT(“R”,MOD(ROW()-6,3)*2+1,”C”,INT((ROW()-6)/3)*2+1)

2. Or they can sit in rows of 3 and columns of 2

=CONCAT(“R”,MOD(ROW()-6,2)*2+1,”C”,INT((ROW()-6)/2)*2+1)

3. You can also sit them in the farthest rows:

=CONCAT(“R”,MOD(ROW()-6,2)*4+1,”C”,INT((ROW()-6)/2)*2+1)

4. Or in the farthest columns:

=CONCAT(“R”,MOD(ROW()-6,3)*2+1,”C”,INT((ROW()-6)/3)*4+1)

Manually creating seating patterns for small sets like this one is easy. But a formula like those shown above definitely helps especially for larger sets like 50, 100, or even more.

The COLUMN and ROW functions are rarely used on their own. Like IF and IFS, you use them with other functions to change how the formula is calculated.

12. MATCH

Now, open up the “Lookup” worksheet.

In the next few examples, you will create a search feature that allows students to look up their names. They can then see their scores from past quizzes and their assigned seats for the next quizzes.

To start, you will use the MATCH function. It searches for a specified item within a given range of cells. It then returns the relative position of the first match.

Syntax: =MATCH(lookup_value, lookup_array, [match_type])

1. The lookup_value is the item you want to search for. So, set this to cell B2.
2. The lookup_array is the range or table array where you want to search. Use F2:F7 from the “Class List” worksheet.
3. For the match_type, set this to zero so that the function searches for an exact match. (Learn more about MATCH and the different match types in this article)

The formula then becomes:

=MATCH(B2,’Class List’!F2:F7,0)

However, it only works correctly if the name is entered exactly as it is written in Column F of the Class List.

To fix this, you can use the asterisk “*” wildcard character so that searching for either first or last name works.

You can also enclose the formula in an IFNA function. This way, if the formula cannot find the given name in the table, it will return a phrase like “No result found”.

13. INDEX

The INDEX function retrieves a value from a given table array based on the provided row and column numbers.

Syntax: =INDEX (array, row_num, [col_num])

Similar to the MATCH example, you need to specify where the range or array lookup is.

For row_num, you can use the earlier MATCH result at Cell B5. Then for col_num, use 1 for the First Name:

=INDEX(‘Class List’!D2:E7,B5,1)

And set col_num to 2 for the Last Name.

=INDEX(‘Class List’!D2:E7,B5,2)

Just like that, you have a working search 🔍 formula!

This is just a small example of the countless possibilities using the INDEX and MATCH combination. Click here for more examples!

14. VLOOKUP

The VLOOKUP function in Excel works similarly to the INDEX and MATCH combination. It is faster to set up but it is less versatile. VLOOKUP also only works if your lookup array is at the leftmost of the reference table.

Syntax: =VLOOKUP (lookup_value, table_array, col_index_num, [range_lookup])

This time, you will use the First Name result (cell B6) as the lookup_value. Use this and VLOOKUP to retrieve the given student’s scores from the “Quiz Scores” worksheet.

=VLOOKUP($B$6,’Quiz Scores’!$A$2:$E$7,COLUMN(),FALSE)

For the seat assignment, use the Last Name result followed by the asterisk wild character.

=VLOOKUP($B$7&”*”,Schedule!$A$6:$E$11,COLUMN(),FALSE)

15. INDIRECT

The last function that you will be learning about today is also one of the most powerful in Excel.

INDIRECT allows you to specify cell references using text strings.

SYNTAX: =INDIRECT(ref_text, [a1])

For example, instead of typing “=A1”, you can type “=INDIRECT(“A”&1). This means you can dynamically change references.

Let’s take the INDEX & MATCH formula you used to retrieve the Last Name. You can get the same result using this formula:

=INDIRECT(“‘Class List’!”&”E”&(B5+1))

The INDIRECT function opens up so many possibilities with dynamic references in Excel. I highly this article for an in-depth tutorial on INDIRECT.

That’s it – Now what?

As you have just learned, Excel offers so many different functions to choose from. Luckily, Excel has brought them all together in the Formulas tab.

You can look for an Excel function using search keywords or you can also select from the categorical dropdowns.

For example, click on the Financial group to find functions that can help you calculate items like net present value, future value, cumulative interest paid, cumulative principal paid, etc.

You can also click on More Functions which opens up even more possibilities for advanced Excel formulas.

For example, the Statistical group is useful if you need to calculate a statistical value. This includes functions for maximum value, minimum value, forecast value, gamma function value, etc. You can insert a cumulative distribution function and other useful tools for data analysis.

Learn how to use these formulas and more by signing up for my free online Excel course.

We will help you make the most out of your Excel experience! 📈

Other relevant resources

If you enjoyed this article, you can visit my YouTube channel for more in-depth tutorials and other fun stuff!

Did you know that the Flash Fill feature can help speed up your work by automatically filling a repetitive pattern Excel detects from your data? Learn more here.

Thanks for reading! 😄

Kasper Langmann2023-02-23T11:47:15+00:00