How To Enter Formula In Excel For Multiple Cells Mac

Getting Started Formulas and functions differ in Excel by one key feature. Formulas are written by you, and functions pre-exist in the program. They have many similarities, as you will see in this page and the following pages covering formulas and functions.

Here are some basic things to know about writing formulas in Excel. ALL formulas and functions must begin with an '='. Without an 'equals,' there will be no formula or function! Basic mathematical operators that you can use when writing a formula are: * for multiplication / for division + for addition - for subtraction The use of these operators follows the basic order of operations: *, /, +, - (muliplication, division, addition, subtraction). You can use ( ) parentheses if you would like operations completed in a different order (e.g. To add two numbers before multiplying them by another number: put the parentheses around the summation).

Writing Formulas To get practice writing a formula, let's return to the dataset from the U.S. Census in 2010 and let's assume that the information for percent change between 2000 and 2010 was missing (or hadn't been provided).

Column H is blank, but that is information we'd like to have. Fortunately, we can calculate it by writing a formula in Excel. You'll need to know how to calculate the percent change in order to write a formula for Excel to do it. In this particular case, we'll divide the amount of change between the two years (found in column G) and by the total population in 2000 (column E). And we'll do this for each individual Census Tract (each row).

To write a formula, first click on the cell where you want the output to be. Then type '='. You'll see the '=' in both the cell in which you are typing and in the formula bar.

Tip: To quickly apply a formula to the next cells down in the column, double-click the fill handle on the first cell that contains the formula. Cell References - These are the cells that hold the values that are used to complete the function. Example A2, D5, F8, etc. Example A2, D5, F8, etc. Arithmetic Operator - This is the operator used.

We could type '-1689 / 12780 * 100' following the '=' sign and this would give us the correct result, however, I'm just going to tell you flat out that you don't want to do that. By writing the actual numbers into your function you are making Excel no better than a calculator, but there are a lot of ways that Excel can save you time and save you from making mistakes if you use it well.

Instead of typing the actual numbers, you want to select the cells that contain the numbers. You can do this by clicking on the cell with the mouse OR by typing the. You'll see that the selected cells are color coded and that the colored cell number/letter references are referring to the cells that are outlined in the same color. This can make finding a cell used in a formula (or function!) easier when scanning a large dataset.

Also, actual numbers remain black (like the *100). When you are done entering the function, press ENTER. Using Cell Referents It is important to use the cell referents instead of the actual numbers in case the numbers in the cells are changed. In this particular case, that shouldn't happen because this is Census data and it would be unnecessary (not to mention inappropriate and unethical) to change it. However, you could be managing a budget or designing an experiment and would like to test how different values will affect the total outcome.

Then you will be very pleased to be able to change numbers in cells without having to rewrite your formulas! Referencing a Cell in Another Worksheet If you are working with multiple worksheets, you might want to refer to a cell in Sheet2 while you're working Sheet1. Let's use a simple summation as an example. To add up the value of C2 in your current worksheet and the value of C2 in Sheet2, simply type: = C2+Sheet2!C2 Using Auto Fill with Formulas Another reason it is important to use the cell referents instead of typing the number is because we can repeat a formula (and a function) using Auto Fill instead of typing each iteration. Need a refresher on? By using Auto Fill all of the selected cells now contain the formula. Notice that the formula changes for each cell it is copied into.