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05 FORMULAS AND
FUNCTIONS
Your Aim
to learn about:
Using Formulas to Perform Calculation Order of Operation
Different Ways to Enter Formulas Understanding Cell Range
Cell Referencing in Formulas and Its Types Functions
As you know, formulas are used to perform calculations in Mathematics. In the same way,
MS Excel also allows you to perform calculations by using formulas. In this chapter, we will learn
about formulas and different ways to add a formula in a worksheet. We will also learn about
different types of built-in functions in Excel.
USING FORMULAS TO PERFORM CALCULATION
Formulas in MS Excel begin with an equal to (=) sign. When the contents of a cell begin with
equal to sign, MS Excel understands that the user has given a formula here. If you don’t enter the
equal to sign, Excel will treat your entry as text and the calculation will fail. To show how formulas
work, we'll begin with a simple exercise by selecting blank cell A1. Then type = 5 + 5, and press
the Enter key. As you press the Enter key, Excel performs the calculation and produces the result
as 10 in cell A1. Enter some more formula in other cells and see what results are shown by Excel.
1. =8 – 5 2. =8 * 5 3. =8/5 4. =8 ^ 5
The results will be 3, 40, 1.6 and 32768 respectively. Some formulas based on BEDMAS rule can
be entered as:
1. =(8 + 5) – (2 + 3) ^ 2 2. =(9/3) * (4 ^ 2) – 5
Clickipedia
MS Excel follows BEDMAS rule for doing mathematical calculations, where B stands for Brackets,
E for Exponentiation, D for Division, M for Multiplication, A for Addition and S for Subtraction.
You can also use cell addresses to perform calculation in the following way:
Notice that when the cell C1 is selected, the Formula bar shows the formula you just typed. You
can also calculate the sum of adjacent cells by pressing the Alt+= keys together after selecting
the cells.
Formulas and Functions 35

