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Excel Lab Manual
Excel Lab Manual
A range in Excel is a collection of two or more cells. This chapter gives an overview of some very
important range operations.
1. To select cell C3, click on the box at the intersection of column C and row 3.
Range Examples
1. To select the range B2:C4, click on cell B2 and drag it to cell C4.
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2. To select a range of individual cells, hold down CTRL and click on each cell that you want to include in
the range.
Fill a Range
1b. Select cell B2, click on the lower right corner of cell B2 and drag it down to cell B8.
Result:
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This dragging technique is very important and you will use it very often in Excel. Here's another example.
2a. Enter the value 2 into cell B2 and the value 4 into cell B3.
2b. Select cell B2 and cell B3, click on the lower right corner of this range and drag it down.
Excel automatically fills the range based on the pattern of the first two values. That's pretty cool huh!?
Here's another example.
3a. Enter the date 6/13/2016 into cell B2 and the date 6/16/2016 into cell B3.
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3b. Select cell B2 and cell B3, click on the lower right corner of this range and drag it down.
Move a Range
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Copy/Paste a Range
1. Select the range, right click, and then click Copy (or press CTRL + c).
2. Select the cell where you want the first cell of the range to appear, right click, and then click Paste
under 'Paste Options:' (or press CTRL + v).
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Insert Row, Column
To insert a row between the values 20 and 40 below, execute the following steps.
1. Select row 3.
Result:
The rows below the new row are shifted down. In a similar way, you can insert a column.
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Cell References
Cell references in Excel are very important. Understand the difference between relative, absolute and
mixed reference, and you are on your way to success.
Relative Reference
By default, Excel uses relative reference. See the formula in cell D2 below. Cell D2 references (points to)
cell B2 and cell C2. Both references are relative.
1. Select cell D2, click on the lower right corner of cell D2 and drag it down to cell D5.
Cell D3 references cell B3 and cell C3. Cell D4 references cell B4 and cell C4. Cell D5 references cell B5
and cell C5. In other words: each cell references its two neighbors on the left.
Absolute Reference
1. To create an absolute reference to cell H3, place a $ symbol in front of the column letter and row
number ($H$3) in the formula of cell E3.
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2. Now we can quickly drag this formula to the other cells.
The reference to cell H3 is fixed (when we drag the formula down and across). As a result, the correct
lengths and widths in inches are calculated.
Mixed Reference
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2. We want to copy this formula to the other cells quickly. Drag cell F2 across one cell, and look at the
formula in cell G2.
Do you see what happens? The reference to the price should be a fixed reference to column B. Solution:
place a $ symbol in front of the column letter ($B2) in the formula of cell F2. In a similar way, when we
drag cell F2 down, the reference to the reduction should be a fixed reference to row 6. Solution: place a
$ symbol in front of the row number (B$6) in the formula of cell F2.
Result:
Note: we don't place a $ symbol in front of the row number of $B2 (this way we allow the reference to
change from $B2 (Jeans) to $B3 (Shirts) when we drag the formula down). In a similar way, we don't
place a $ symbol in front of the column letter of B$6 (this way we allow the reference to change from
B$6 (Jan) to C$6 (Feb) and D$6 (Mar) when we drag the formula across).
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Find and Replace:
Create a range and calculate average using average formula.
1. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Find & Select.
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2. Click Find.
3. Type the text you want to find. For example, type Ferrari.
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Excel selects the first occurrence.
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5. Click 'Find Next' to select the second occurrence.
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Replace
To quickly find specific text and replace it with other text, execute the following steps.
1. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Find & Select.
2. Click Replace.
The 'Find and Replace' dialog box appears (with the Replace tab selected).
3. Type the text you want to find (Veneno) and replace it with (Diablo).
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Excel selects the first occurrence. No replacement has been made yet.
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Note: use 'Replace All' to replace all occurrences.
Sort:
Create a Range as mentioned.
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You can sort your Excel data on one column or multiple columns. You can sort in ascending or
descending order.
One Column
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2. To sort in ascending order, on the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group, click AZ.
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Result:
Multiple Columns
1. On the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group, click Sort.
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2. Select Last Name from the 'Sort by' drop-down list.
5. Click OK.
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Result. Records are sorted by Last Name first and Sales second.
Filter:
Create a range
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1. Click any single cell inside a data set.
2. On the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group, click Filter.
4. Click on Select All to clear all the check boxes, and click the check box next to USA.
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5. Click OK.
7. Click on Select All to clear all the check boxes, and click the check box next to Qtr 4.
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8. Click OK.
9. To remove the filter, on the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group, click Clear. To remove the
filter and the arrows, click Filter.
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Logical Functions
If Function
The IF function checks whether a condition is met, and returns one value if TRUE and another
value if FALSE.
The IF function returns Correct because the value in cell A1 is higher than 10.
And Function
The AND Function returns TRUE if all conditions are true and returns FALSE if any of the
conditions are false.
The AND function returns FALSE because the value in cell B1 is not higher than 5. As a result
the IF function returns Incorrect.
Or Function
The OR function returns TRUE if any of the conditions are TRUE and returns FALSE if all
conditions are false.
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The OR function returns TRUE because the value in cell A1 is higher than 10. As a result the IF
function returns Correct.
General note: the AND and OR function can check up to 255 conditions.
Nested If
The IF function in Excel can be nested, when you have multiple conditions to meet. The
FALSE value is being replaced by another IF function to make a further test.
1d. If cell A1 equals another value, the formula returns No Valid Score.
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Here's another example.
2b. If cell A1 is greater than 10 and less or equal to 20, the formula returns 700.
2c. If cell A1 is greater than 20 and less or equal to 30, the formula returns 1400.
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Note: to slightly change the boundaries, you might want to use "<" instead of "<=" in your own
formula.
The most used functions in Excel are the functions that count and sum. You can count and sum
based on one criteria or multiple criteria.
Count
To count the number of cells that contain numbers, use the COUNT function.
Countif
To count cells based on one criteria (for example, higher than 9), use the following COUNTIF
function.
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Countifs
To count cells based on multiple criteria (for example, green and higher than 9), use the
following COUNTIFS function.
Sum
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To sum a range of cells, use the SUM function.
Sumif
To sum cells based on one criteria (for example, higher than 9), use the following SUMIF
function (two arguments).
To sum cells based on one criteria (for example, green), use the following SUMIF function
(three arguments, last argument is the range to sum).
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Sumifs
To sum cells based on multiple criteria (for example, blue and green), use the following SUMIFS
function (first argument is the range to sum).
General note: in a similar way, you can use the AVERAGEIF and AVERAGEIFS function to
average cells based on one or multiple criteria.
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Count Logical Values
Learn how to count the number of cells that contain logical values (TRUE and FALSE) in
Excel.
3. For example, to count the number of cells that contain TRUE or FALSE.
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Count Blank/Nonblank Cells
This example shows you how to count the number of blank and nonblank cells in Excel.
2. The COUNTA function counts the number of nonblank cells. COUNTA stands for count all.
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Count Text Occurrences
This example teaches you how to count the number of occurrences of text in a range.
1. For example, to count the number of cells that contain exactly star.
2. For example, to count the number of cells that contain exactly star + 1 character. A question
mark (?) matches exactly one character.
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3. For example, to count the number of cells that contain exactly star + a series of zero or more
characters. An asterisk (*) matches a series of zero or more characters.
4. For example, to count the number of cells that contain star in any way. No matter what is
before or after star, this function finds all the cells that contain star in any way.
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5. For example, to count the number of cells that contain text.
Average
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Averageif
To average cells based on one criteria, use the AVERAGEIF function. For example, to calculate
the average excluding zeros.
Note: <> means not equal to. The AVERAGEIF function is similar to the SUMIF function.
Min
Max
Large
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To find the third largest number, use the following LARGE function.
Check:
Small
To find the second smallest number, use the following SMALL function.
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