Book Image

Exploring Microsoft Excel’s Hidden Treasures

By : David Ringstrom
Book Image

Exploring Microsoft Excel’s Hidden Treasures

By: David Ringstrom

Overview of this book

David Ringstrom coined the phrase “Either you work Excel, or it works you!” after observing how many users carry out tasks inefficiently. In this book, you’ll learn how to get more done with less effort. This book will enable you to create resilient spreadsheets that are easy for others to use as well, while incorporating spreadsheet disaster preparedness techniques. The time-saving techniques covered in the book include creating custom shortcuts and icons to streamline repetitive tasks, as well as automating them with features such as Tables and Custom Views. You’ll see how Conditional Formatting enables you to apply colors, Cell icons, and other formatting on-demand as your data changes. You’ll be empowered to protect the integrity of spreadsheets and increase usability by implementing internal controls, and understand how to solve problems with What-If Analysis features. In addition, you’ll master new features and functions such as XLOOKUP, Dynamic Array functions, LET and LAMBDA, and Power Query, while learning how to leverage shortcuts and nuances in Excel. By the end of this book, you’ll have a broader awareness of how to avoid pitfalls in Excel. You’ll be empowered to work more effectively in Excel, having gained a deeper understanding of the frustrating oddities that can arise daily in Excel.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Part 1: Improving Accessibility
6
Part 2:Spreadsheet Interactivity and Automation
12
Part 3: Data Analysis

The SUMIF function

The =SUMIF($B3:$B12,$G3,D3:D12) formula in cell H3 of Figure 10.5 returns 149 as the sum of the miles for both instances of Ninety Mile Beach:

Figure 10.5 – The SUMIF function

The SUMIF function has three required arguments:

  • Range – This refers to a row or column that you wish to search, which, in this case, is $B3:$B12.
  • Criteria – This refers to a value to search for, which, in this case, is $G3.
  • Sum_range – This refers to a row or column that you wish to add up values from, which, in this case, is D3:D12.

As shown in cell H8 of Figure 10.5, the =SUMIF($B3:$B12,$G8,D3:D12) formula returns 0 because the hyphenated Ninety-Mile Beach version does not appear in cells B3:B12. As we saw previously, in such situations, VLOOKUP and MATCH would return #N/A. Typically, you would not want to add both Ninety Mile Beaches together but would instead want to look up the length of one beach or the other...