Excel basic functions you should definitely know!! (COUNT & COUNTA)

COUNT & COUNTA

If you are curious to know how many cells in a given range contain numeric values (numbers or dates), don't waste your time counting them by hand. The Excel COUNT function will bring you the count in a heartbeat:

COUNT(value1, [value2], …)

While the COUNT function deals only with those cells that contain numbers, the Excel COUNTA function counts all cells that are not blank, whether they contain numbers, dates, times, text, logical values of TRUE and FALSE, errors or empty text strings (""):

COUNTA (value1, [value2], …)

For example, to find out how many cells in column A contain numbers, use this formula:

=COUNT(A:A)

To count all non-empty cells in column A, go with this one:

=COUNTA(A:A)

In both formulas, you use the so-called "whole column reference" (A:A) that refers to all of the cells within column A.

The following screenshot shows the difference:

Read More

Excel basic functions you should definitely know!! (MAX & MIN)

MAX & MIN

The MAX and MIN formulas in Excel get the largest and smallest value in a set of numbers, respectively. For our sample data set, the formulas will be as simple as:

=MAX(A2:A6)

=MIN(A2:A6)

Read More

Excel basic functions you should definitely know!! (AVERAGE)

AVERAGE

The Excel AVERAGE function does exactly what its name suggests, i.e. finds an average, or arithmetic mean, of numbers. Its syntax is similar to SUM's:

AVERAGE(number1, [number2], …)

Having a closer look at the last formula from the previous section (=SUM(A2:A6)/5), what does it actually do? Sums values in cells A2 through A6, and then divides the result by 5. And what do you call adding up a group of numbers and then dividing the sum by the count of those numbers? Yep, an average!

So, instead of typing =SUM(A2:A6)/5, you can simply put =AVERAGE(A2:A6)

Read More