Excel

This is a cheat sheet repo for Excel

Note: In this tutorial I will be using Google Sheets, but the same concepts apply to Excel

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Description
Tab	Go to next cell in the row
cmd + shift + v	Paste values without style
cmd + d	Fill down
cmd + a	Select entire sheet

Tips

Formulas

• You can add formulas to a cell by typing = and then the formula
• After typing = you can click on a cell to add it to the formula (e.g. =C4*D4)
• You can make any mathematical operation in a formula (e.g. =A1+B1)
• You can drag the bottom right corner of a cell to copy the formula to other cells
• Select multiple cells and drag the bottom right corner to copy the formula to multiple cells
• If you copy a cell with a formula and paste it into another cell, the formula will be updated to use the new cell's position

Note: A1 is a cell reference, A is the column and 1 is the row

Functions

Numbers

• =MAX(A1:A10) - Returns the maximum value in the range
• =MIN(A1:A10) - Returns the minimum value in the range
• =SUM(A1:A10) - Returns the sum of the values in the range
• =AVERAGE(A1:A10) - Returns the average of the values in the range
• =COUNT(A1:A10) - Returns the number of values in the range
• =COUNTA(A1:A10) - Returns the number of non-empty values in the range
• =COUNTBLANK(A1:A10) - Returns the number of empty values in the range
• =COUNTIF(A1:A10, ">10") - Returns the number of values in the range that are greater than 10
• =COUNTIFS(A1:A10, ">10", B1:B10, "<20") - Returns the number of values in the range that are greater than 10 and less than 20
• =SUMIF(A1:A10, ">10") - Returns the sum of the values in the range that are greater than 10
• =SUMIFS(A1:A10, ">10", B1:B10, "<20") - Returns the sum of the values in the range that are greater than 10 and less than 20
• =AVERAGEIF(A1:A10, ">10") - Returns the average of the values in the range that are greater than 10
• =AVERAGEIFS(A1:A10, ">10", B1:B10, "<20") - Returns the average of the values in the range that are greater than 10 and less than 20
• =IF(A1>10, "Greater than 10", "Less than 10") - Returns "Greater than 10" if the value in A1 is greater than 10, otherwise returns "Less than 10"
• =OR(A1>10, B1>10) - Returns TRUE if either A1 or B1 is greater than 10
• =SUMIF(A1:A10, ">10") - Returns the sum of the values in the range that are greater than 10
• =SUMIF(A1:A10, ">10", B1:B10) - Returns the sum of the values in the range B1:B10 if the value in the range A1:A10 is greater than 10

Note: You can also return a formula in an IF statement (e.g. =IF(A1>10, A1*2, A1*3))

Dates

• =YEAR(TODAY()) - Returns the current year
• =TEXT(YEAR(TODAY()),"YY") - Returns the current year in two digits (YY) format
• =TEXT(TODAY(),"DD/MM/YYYY") - Returns the current date in DD/MM/YYYY format
• =MONTH(TODAY()) - Returns the current month
• =DAY(TODAY()) - Returns the current day
• =WEEKDAY(TODAY()) - Returns the current day of the week (e.g. 1 for Sunday, 2 for Monday, etc.)
• =TEXT(TODAY(),"dddd") - Returns the current day of the week (e.g. Sunday, Monday, etc.)
• =DATE(YEAR(TODAY()), MONTH(TODAY()), DAY(TODAY())+1) - Returns the date of tomorrow

Text

• =CONCATENATE(A1, " ", B1) - Returns the concatenation of the values in A1 and B1
• =LEFT(A1, 5) - Returns the first 5 characters of the value in A1
• =RIGHT(A1, 5) - Returns the last 5 characters of the value in A1
• =MID(A1, 5, 10) - Returns 10 characters of the value in A1 starting from the 5th character
• =LEN(A1) - Returns the length of the value in A1
• =LOWER(A1) - Returns the value in A1 in lower case
• =UPPER(A1) - Returns the value in A1 in upper case
• =PROPER(A1) - Returns the value in A1 in proper case (e.g. "hello world" becomes "Hello World")
• =TRIM(A1) - Returns the value in A1 with all leading and trailing spaces removed
• =SUBSTITUTE(A1, " ", "") - Returns the value in A1 with all spaces removed

Note: Google Sheets and Excel have many more functions than the ones listed above

Absolute References

• You can use $ to make a reference absolute (e.g. $A$1)
• If you copy a cell with an absolute reference and paste it into another cell, the reference will not be updated

Note: It is useful to use absolute references when you are referencing a cell that you do not want to change (e.g. a constant)

BEWARE: If the '$' symbol is placed before the column letter (e.g. $A1) then the column will not change when the formula is copied, but the row will and vice versa (e.g. A$1)

Conditional Formatting

Conditional formatting allows you to change the style of a cell based on its value

• Select the cells you want to apply the conditional formatting to
• Click on the "Format" menu and select "Conditional formatting"
• Select the type of conditional formatting you want to apply (e.g. "Greater than")
• Enter the value you want to compare the cell to (e.g. 10), add the percentage if you want to compare it to a percentage (e.g. 10%, or use 0.1 for 10%)
• Select the style you want to apply to the cell if the condition is met (e.g. "Bold")
• Click on the "Done" button

Insert Chart

• Select the cells you want to include in the chart
• Click on the "Insert" menu and select "Chart"
• Select the type of chart you want to insert (e.g. "Column chart")
• Style the chart as you want
• Add x-axis data if needed

Split Column Text to Multiple Columns

• Select the column you want to split
• Click on the "Data" menu and select "Split text to columns"
• Select the separator you want to use (e.g. "Space")

Example: "John Doe" cell will be split into "John" and "Doe" cells in new columns

Extract Text from a Cell

• =LEFT(A1, 5) - Returns the first 5 characters from the A1 cell
• =RIGHT(A1, 5) - Returns the last 5 characters from the A1 cell
• =MID(A1, 5, 10) - Returns 10 characters from the A1 cell starting from the 5th character

Note: starts at 1, not 0 like many programming languages

Fill Down

Sometimes you want to fill down a column with the same value or formula

Method 1

• Select the cell you want to fill down
• Click and hold the bottom right corner of the cell (the cursor should change to a cross)
• Drag the cell down to the last cell you want to fill down

Method 2

• Select the cell you want to fill down
• Hold down the shift key and press down arrow (or click on the last cell you want to fill down)
• Click cmd + d to fill down the column

Sort

You can sort selected cells, columns, rows or the entire sheet

• Select the cells, columns, rows or the entire sheet you want to sort (e.g. click on the top left square to select the entire sheet)
• Click on the "Data" menu and select "Sort range" -> "Advanced range sorting options"
• If the sheet has a header row, check the "Data has header row" checkbox
• Select the column you want to sort by
• Select the order you want to sort by (e.g. "A to Z")
• Click on the "Sort" button

Filter

You can filter selected cells, columns, rows or the entire sheet

Create a filter vs Filter Views

• Filter views: The filter will be applied to the sheet and will be visible only to you
• Create a filter: The filter will be applied to the sheet and will be visible to everyone who has access to the sheet

Filter views

• Click on the "Data" menu and select "Filter views" -> "Create new filter view"
• Select the column you want to filter by
• Select the condition you want to filter by (e.g. "Greater than")
• Enter the value you want to filter by (e.g. 10)
• Click on the "OK" button
• Choose a name for the filter view (e.g. "Only sales from Arizona")

Pivot Table

A Pivot Table allows you to summarize data from a table into a new table

• Select the cells you want to include in the pivot table
• Click on the "Insert" menu and select "Pivot table"

Note: A new sheet will be created with the pivot table

• Go to the "Pivot table editor" section on the right
• Select either the suggested pivot table or create your own by selecting the columns, rows, values or filters you want to include in the pivot table
• Click on the "Add" button

TIP: You can then insert a chart based on the pivot table

Lookup Table

A lookup table allows you to lookup a value in a table and return a value from another column in the same row

• Create a table with the values you want to lookup:

Note: Those are simply two columns with values that you can put anywhere in the sheet

B	C
CR	Chrysler
FD	Ford

• Sort the table by the first column (e.g. "B"), if not the sorted, the lookup will not work

See Sort

• Select the new cell you want to return the value to
• Enter the formula =VLOOKUP(A1, B$1:C$2, 2)

Note: A1 is the value you want to lookup (which in this case is placed in the A column), B$1:C$2 is the table you want to lookup the value in, 2 is the lookup table column number you want to return the value from

We used an absolute reference for the table because we want to be able to copy the formula to other cells

Copy Charts to Google Docs and Slides

You can copy and paste Charts between Google Sheets (or Excel) and Google Docs or Slides (or Word or PowerPoint)

• Select the chart you want to copy
• Click on the "Edit" menu and select "Copy"
• Go to Google Docs or Slides
• Paste the chart

Calculate the percentage of a currency value

• Add a column with the value you want to calculate the percentage of (e.g. 100) and format it as currency or accounting
• Add a column with the percentage you want to calculate (e.g. 10%)
• Add a column with the formula =A1*B1 (e.g. =100*10%)

General Tips

• You can use the = operator to convert a value to a number (e.g. =A1*2)
• You can click on a column header to select the entire column
• You can add a column by right clicking on a column header and selecting "Insert 1 left"
• You can calculate the number of days between two dates by subtracting them (e.g. =A1-A2)
• Double click on the column right border to auto resize the column to fit the content
• You can rotate text in a cell by selecting the cell and then clicking on the "Text Rotation" button in the toolbar
• You can either use .5 or 50% to represent 50%