Archive for January 2016

Create a two-level nested function. A two-level nested function means that we use another function as an argument for a function. We’ll take this with the help of an example. Say we are using a ‘SUM’ function. We can input numbers as the arguments manually or we can input cells or data ranges by using…

Use database functions: dsum, dmin, dmax, dcount, daverage. In the same ‘Function Wizard’, under the ‘Database’ category, we have some database functions. One of these functions is ‘DSUM’. This function adds all the cells of a data range where the contents match the search criteria. This function takes 3 arguments, ‘Database’, ‘Database field’, and ‘Search…

Use lookup functions: vlookup, hlookup. In the same ‘Function Wizard’, under the ‘Spreadsheet’ category, we have the ‘VLOOKUP’ and ‘HLOOKUP’ functions. ‘VLOOKUP’ is vertical lookup and ‘HLOOKUP’ is the horizontal lookup. ‘VLOOKUP’ does the vertical search and references to the indicated cells. ‘HLOOKUP’ does the horizontal search and reference to the cells located below. Both…

Use financial functions: fv, pv, pmt. In the same wizard, under the ‘Financial’ category, we have the ‘FV’ function. This function returns the future value of an investment based on regular payments and a constant rate of interest. This function takes up five values, ‘Rate’, ‘NPER’, ‘PMT’, ‘PV’ and ‘Type’. ‘Rate’ is the rate of…

Use text functions: left, right, mid, trim, concatenate. In the ‘Function Wizard’, under the ‘Text’ category, we have some functions which can be used to analyze text values. One such function is ‘LEFT’. This function returns a specified number of first characters from any word. This function takes two arguments, ‘text’ and ‘number’. The ‘text’…