Functions in Excel

[One speaker] 

[Title slide: “Functions in Excel”.]

Instructor: Welcome! In this video, I’m going to explain the concept of functions in Excel. So there are many functions in Excel that allow you to perform complex calculations quickly. There are hundreds of different functions that Excel uses. [blank excel spreadsheet is seen] We can see some of these by quickly clicking equals and typing in a letter. [selects cell A2 and types “=s”. A dropdown menu appears below it.] Each of these is a function. Notice there are functions--several functions--for every letter I type in. [types “=h” into cell A2] 

Functions have two parts: first, they have their name; and second, they have the arguments that go within the function. The function name is usually a shortened description of what the function does. [a blank spreadsheet is seen again as the words, “Name = shortened description of the function. Arguments = Variables a function needs in order to do its calculation” appear over the sheet] For example, the SUM function stands for the word “summation,” or in other words, to add things together. [types “=SUM(“ into cell A2] The SUM function adds however many numbers together that we want, or it adds the numbers that are within the cells we reference inside the function.

To call up a function, hit equals and then start typing in the letters. [types “=sum” into cell A2. A dropdown menu appears.] Notice there are a lot of different functions that came up when I typed in “sum.” I just want the first one--just the plain S-U-M function. [selects from the dropdown menu] Notice here when I did this that underneath, I see a description of what goes inside the parentheses of the sum function. These things that go within the parenthesis are the arguments. The arguments within the parenthesis of the function are the variables that the function needs in order to do its calculation. So for example, the SUM function wants to add things up. I could add things right here: just three comma four. Add the close parenthesis and hit enter. [writes “=SUM(3,4)” in cell A2. Hits enter and a 7 replaces the formula in the cell]

This automatically added three and four together, but I can also reference cells. I’m going to type the number eight into the cell B2 and the number two into the cell C2. [writes “8” in cell B2 and “2” in cell C2] Now I’m going to edit my SUM function by double-clicking on it, and instead of doing three and four, I’m going to come over here and highlight the two cells that I want to add together. [writes “=SUM()” in cell A2 and highlights cells B2 and C2] Notice it automatically captured B2 through C2. If I hit enter, it will automatically add up the numbers within cells B2 and C2. [after hitting enter, a “10” appears in place of the formula in cell A2] Another function that we’ll look at in this lesson is the payment function. To start using the payment function, I hit equals and start typing in the letters for the payment function: P-M-T. [types “=PMT(” into cell A4] And then I can click on it.

The payment function has very specific variables that need to go into it as its arguments. These variables each have a name, and, if you click on the name of the function, Excel will often bring up a little help screen that will tell you what all of the arguments mean within the function. [a help screen about PMT function appears] We’ll learn more about how to use the payment function in another lesson.

[End of Video]