You don't need hundreds of functions to be useful in Excel. A dozen formulas cover most of what everyday spreadsheets do: adding things up, averages, percentages, rounding money, and making a simple decision. Learn them in this order, because each one builds on the last. Every section links to a short lesson where you practise in a real grid and get told exactly what went wrong.
What is an Excel formula?
A formula is a calculation in a cell. It always starts with =, and it can use numbers, cell names such as B2 and functions
such as SUM. A cell's name is its column letter and row number: B2 is column B, row 2. If that is new, start with Cells and cell names; it takes two minutes.
1. How do you add, subtract, multiply and divide?
Type = and the sum, using +, -, * for multiply and / for divide:
=25*4 Practise in Your first formula.
2. Why use cell names instead of numbers?
Point at the cells instead of typing their values. If B2 holds a price and C2 a quantity, this gives the line total, and it
updates by itself when either number changes:
=B2*C2 Then copy it down the column: drag the small square at the bottom right of the cell, or select the cells and press Ctrl+D. Excel
changes B2 to B3, B4 and so on for each row. See Using cell names in
formulas and Copying a formula down.
3. SUM: how do you add up a column?
=SUM(B2:B8) - B2:B8: number1
The colon makes a range, and ranges are how every function works on lots of cells at once. Adding up a column with SUM is your first function lesson.
4 to 6. AVERAGE, MAX and MIN
Same range, different question: the average, the highest and the lowest.
=AVERAGE(B2:B8) =MAX(B2:B8) =MIN(B2:B8) Practise all three in AVERAGE, MAX and MIN.
7 and 8. How do you count cells with COUNT and COUNTA?
COUNT counts cells that contain numbers. COUNTA counts cells that are not empty, including text. To count how many people
are on a list, use COUNTA on the names; to count how many have a score, use COUNT on the scores:
=COUNTA(A2:A50) The difference trips everyone up once. Counting with COUNT and COUNTA shows when each one is right.
9. How do you round to two decimal places?
Formatting a cell to show two decimals only changes how it looks; the full value is still used in later sums. ROUND changes the value
itself, which matters for money:
=ROUND(B2/3,2) - B2/3: number
- 2: num_digits
Practise it in Rounding with ROUND.
10. How do you work out a percentage?
Divide the part by the total, then format the cell as a percentage (the % button on the Home tab). Excel stores 25% as 0.25, so there is no need to multiply by 100:
=B2/$B$9 See Percentages.
11. How do you join text from two cells?
The & sign joins text. Put a space in quotes between the parts:
=A2&" "&B2 Practise in Joining text with &.
12. IF: how does Excel make a decision?
A comparison such as =B2>=50 answers TRUE or FALSE (Comparisons: TRUE or FALSE). IF turns that answer into whatever you want to show:
=IF(B2>=50,"Pass","Fail") - B2>=50: logical_test
- "Pass": value_if_true
- "Fail": value_if_false
Read it as: if B2 is at least 50, show Pass, otherwise show Fail. IF: making a decision walks through it.
Which rules do beginners need to know?
Excel follows the maths order of calculation
Multiplication and division happen before addition and subtraction, so =2+3*4 is 14, not 20. Use brackets to change the order: =(2+3)*4 is 20. A common slip is =B2+C2/2 when you meant the average of two cells, =(B2+C2)/2.
Practise in Brackets and the order of calculation.
$ locks a cell when you copy a formula
When you copy a formula down, every cell name moves with it. That is usually what you want, except for a cell that should stay put, like a tax rate in E1. Put $ before the column letter and row number, or press F4 while the cursor is on it:
=B2*$E$1 This is the skill that makes later formulas, especially lookups, work. Locking a cell with $ shows the range staying put versus sliding away.
What should you learn next?
Once these feel easy, the next step is formulas that look at a whole table: COUNTIF and SUMIF count and add up only the rows that match, IF inside IF gives more than two answers, and lookups pull data from one table into another. When you get there, XLOOKUP vs VLOOKUP explains which lookup to learn first.
The quickest way to make all of this stick is to type it. The free lessons give you a spreadsheet in your browser, walk you through each formula once, then check your own answer on new data.