How to Excel formulas work

The essential Excel functions you must learn to use

There are certain programs that never get old. Excel is one of them. There are certain essential functions on Excel that you need to master in order to improve your professional life. You can save time and make the program help you to manage data in order to get a better performance at work.

In this article you will find the essential Excel functions you need to make your professional day more productive. There are several functions you will find yourself using regularly if you learn how to. Take note and find the most useful for you.

Essential Excel functions SUM and MEDIAN

The Excel SUM function for example, is one o the most simple and popular ones. It allows you to add values, including cell references, ranges or a combination of the three elements. In order to use essential Excel functions like SUM follow these steps:

  1. Type =SUM in a cell.
  2. Enter the first argument (formula range).
  3. Separate arguments with a comma.
  4. Enter additional arguments.
  5. Close parentheses and press Enter.

Median function in Excel is another one of the most popular ones. You can use it to obtain the median of a set of numbers. The formula is very easy to write and you will find it very useful if you are working with a wide arrange of numbers.

  1. Select a cell and type =MEDIAN.
  2. Enter numerical variables in brackets.
  3. Press Enter.

It’s a function that you can also type with names, arrays and references that contain numbers. The median is a type of average value describing the center of any given data.

MAX and MIN Excel essential functions

The Excel formula of maximum and minimum allows searching for those values in a range of cells. It’s a great way to manage data automatically through the Excel capabilities. You only need to type =MAX or =MIN in a cell and introduce the range between parentheses.

COUNT function in Excel

Another Excel function that’s very useful is =COUNT. It allows the user to set a range of cells where you can count how many times does a certain value appears.

TRANSPOSE formula

The =TRANSPOSE function is very useful if you work with data matrix. It can make data columns easy to navigate as it turns your column data to rows and viceversa.

TRUNC feature

The =TRUNC feature allows you to format the cells in a work sheet. You can use it to manage your data set and hide additional data on numbers to show them as complete units. It’s also possible to revert the configuration to see numbers with comma separations as well.

Conditional functions in Excel with the IF feature

Using =IF you can count a certain range of cells in order to determine when does a value appear. It’s a great tool for teachers who use Excel to make the student calcifications easier to read. You can set this formula to give you certain messages depending on the result of the number of times certain data appears.

DAY function

In order to work with dates on Excel, the DAY formula is one of the best alternatives. You can calculate the days differences for your projects and how have you advanced depending on your schedule. It’s also a good idea to use the =TODAY function to make today schedule to appear.

CONCATENATE formula in Excel

This function doesn’t calculate but joins information from different cells to make content reading more dynamic. It’s a very useful formula for data bases and finances which you need to modify individually. In order to use it follow these steps:

  1. Select the cell where you want to enter the new formula.
  2. Type =CONCATENATE in the formula bar.
  3. Press and hold Ctrl and click on each cell you want to concatenate.
  4. Release the Ctrl button and type the closing parenthesis.
  5. Press Enter.

The SUBSTITE formula in Excel

In case you detect an error on your Excel or if you want to substitute a concept, you can change it manually. But a smart way to do so is using the =SUBSTITUTE function and make Excel automatically change the terms. You first introduce the original text and then type the new one.


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