29 Excel Formula Tips for all Occasions [and proof that PHD readers truly rock]

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It is no exaggeration that knowing excel formulas can give you a career boost. From someone starting at the long list of numbers, you can become a data god who can lookup, manipulate and analyze any spreadsheet by learning few excel formulas.

So when our little excel blog hit the 5000 RSS Subscriber milestone, I celebrated the occasion by asking you to share an excel formula through twitter or comments with rest of us. And boy, what an excellent list of formula tips you have shared with us all.

Here is the complete list of entries for the twitter formula contest.

Follow the links next to contributor’s name to see the original twitter post or comment

To return the full Path+Filename of your (saved) workbook

by Dmurphy on PHD comments

To return the full Path+Filename of your (saved) workbook (and dropping the [] characters) to get, for example, C:\Data\ExcelFiles\MyWorkbook.xls: =SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(LEFT(CELL(”filename”,$A$1), FIND(”]”,CELL(”filename”,$A$1))),”[“,””),”]“,””)

Create a Dynamic Range that Grows and Shrinks with Data

by ps62 on twitter [@ps62]

IF($A6=””,””, SUM(OFFSET(Data,$A6-1,StartDateIndex-1,1,NumCols))) – makes stuff dynamic

Find the last cell in a row

by govi on twitter [@govi]

Return last filled cell in a row: =LOOKUP(9,999E+307;A1:IV1)

Cleaning your data (Example, changing the values in a column)

by artjohnson on twitter [@artjohnson]

Excel. Cust name header in C9 and text datalist below. Formula in B9 moves name from C9 to B9. Copy down. =if(isblank(C8),c9,b8)

Extract the month from a date

by Alan on PHD comments

Probably a easier way of doing this , extracting the month from a date as text. A1 is date =TEXT(DATE(0,MONTH(a1),1),”mmmm”)

Clean your text before you lookup

by rushikul on twitter [@rushikul]

=VLOOKUP(CLEAN(TRIM(E20)),F5:G18,2,0). To make sure you are using clear text, as text is most used in vookup_value

Find if two ranges are statistically different

by nandoaires on twitter [@nandoaires]

=IF((1-(1-NORMSDIST(ABS(A1-A2)/SQRT((2*AVERAGE(A1:A2)*(1-AVERAGE(A1:A2)))/(A3))))*2)>0,95;”Different”;”Equals”)

Lookup 3 criteria and return the match

by Alan_xls on twitter [@Alan_xls]

=Index(return,Match(1,(1stRange=criteria1)*(2ndRange=criteria2)*(3rdRange=criteria3),0)) Return result where 3 values match,Array Form

Offset with Match, get data from somewhere else

by Arnab Bose on PHD comments

This formula looks up data from another sheet considering three parameters keeping into account the column A and column B with sub-components (both on another sheet) and matching them up with the heading on both sheets. =OFFSET(’Data Sheet’!$C$1,MATCH(D$2,’Data Sheet’!$A$2:$A$140,0)+MATCH($B5,’Data Sheet’!$B$2:$B$20,0)-1,MATCH(D$3,’Data Sheet’!$C$1:$J$1,0)-1)

Using SUM with multiple conditions

by ps62 on twitter [@ps62]

{=SUM(IF(shoes=”nike”,Units,0))} – array formula – two conditions

VLOOKUP but get values from the left

by bsamson on twitter [@bsamson]

VLookup to return values to the left of the lookup range: =INDEX(SearchRange,MATCH(LookupValue,LookupRange,FALSE))

Getting data from a dynamic range

by Arnab Bose on PHD comments

This formula extracts data from a dynamic data range and returns a zero value if there is an #N/A error. =IF(ISNA(HLOOKUP($A14,Data!$AB$2:$AW$9,MATCH(”P”,Data!$AB$2:$AB$2,0),0)), 0,HLOOKUP($A14,Data!$AB$2:$AW$9,MATCH(”P”,Data!$AB$2:$AB$2,0),0))

Find the difference between maximums of two ranges

by PreetAulakh on twitter [@PreetAulakh]

{=MAX(K5:M5-K4:M4)}, one step formula to determine the max of difference of two ranges! No curly brackets in excel, Cltr+Shift+Enter

Find the top 3 values of a range

by JassiAulakh on twitter [@JassiAulakh]

Large(A1:A100,{1,2,3}). Gives you 3 highest values of a range. Select three cells and enter this formulas. Then Cltr+Shift+Enter

SUMPRODUCT with multiple conditions

by Martin on PHD comments

Here’s my little contribution (previously posted 😉 Named Ranges (should be dynamic, but….) Ship $A$2:$A$8 Captain $B$2:$B$8 flights $C$2:$C$8 in F:F Summary_ship $F$2:$I$2 this 3:3 Summary_Captain $E$3:$E$6 data is in range A1:C8, and summary is in E1:I6. =SUMPRODUCT((Ship=in Summary_ship)*(Captain=this Summary_Captain)*(flights))

Get the name of the workbook

by Dmurphy on PHD comments

To return the name of the workbook only, e.g. MyWorkbook.xls: =MID(CELL(”filename”,$A$1),FIND(”[“,CELL(“filename”,$A$1))+1,FIND(“]“,CELL(”filename”,$A$1))-FIND(”[”,CELL(”filename”,$A$1))-1)

Excel Formula Fun – Should we fight… ?

by chrismelck on twitter [@chrismelck]

=IF(ISERROR(VLOOKUP(WOMD,Iraq,1,FALSE)),”Declare war”,”Declare war anyway”)

More ways to use IF and Then formula

by Olu D. on PHD comments

This formula determines the Active (=”T”) status or otherwise of Employees in an Excel spreadsheet: =IF(AC2=””,”X”,IF(AND(AC2=500000,AD2=””),”T”,IF(AND(AC2500000,AD2?”),”F”,”Pls Enter Leaving Reason!!”)))

Using INDIRECT along with VLOOKUP to make dynamic lookups

by squash86 on twitter [@squash86]

=VLOOKUP(B3, INDIRECT(B36), COLUMN()-1,FALSE) The INDIRECT returns the name of a named range that holds the data table.

Calculate the p-value of a t-statistic [Don’t ask me what it is 😛 ]

by David on PHD comments

=NORMDIST(-1*ABS((Z27-AE27)/AG27),0,1,TRUE). Calculate p-value for t-statistic based on means in Z27 and AE27 and the std err of mean in AG27.

What is on the right side of that string

by aniVy on twitter [@aniVy]

=RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-FIND(“-“,A1,1)) – Extracts right side string after a hyphen.

Find frequency distribution of a range of values

by Cody on PHD comments

=FREQUENCY(DY5:DY118,EU4:EU14) for creating frequency distributions. I can’t believe I went so long before discovering that there’s an easy built-in array function that does this. Constructing the distribution by hand was always a pain.

In-cell bar graph

by JohnCorp on twitter [@JohnCorp]

=REPT(“|”,A1/MAX($A$1:$A$5)*30) creates a bar graph from the data in the range a1:a5, change the font to change the look of the graph

Get the name of the current worksheet

by Dmurphy on PHD comments

To return the name fo the current worksheet, e.g. “Sheet1?: =MID(CELL(”filename”,$A$1),FIND(”]”,CELL(”filename”,$A$1))+1, LEN(CELL(”filename”,$A$1))-FIND(”]”,CELL(”filename”,$A$1)))

Excel formula fun – Usetheforce()

by _mikii on twitter [@_mikii]

=usetheforce(choke,”Moff Jerjerrod”)

UDF to calculate to royalty, I am not getting any

by chrislbs on twitter [@chrislbs]

=TieredRoyalty($R$16:$T$19,I5) @r1c1 Uses a UDF to calculate royalty on I5 based on a TierTable in R16:T19, saving nested vlookups

Find the Next Friday the 13th

by S3bast1an on twitter [@S3bast1an]

ARRAYformula – Next Friday 13th is =MIN(IF(((WEEKDAY(TODAY()+ROW(1:1000);2)=5)*(DAY(TODAY()+ROW(1:1000))=13))=1;TODAY()+ROW(1:1000)))

Split first name and last name

by Mahmut on PHD comments

=LEFT(A1,FIND(” “,A1)-1) =RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-FIND(” “,A1)) Split first names and last names.

IF with a VLOOKUP

by m4th1337 on twitter [@m4th1337]

=IF(VLOOKUP(C1,’Historical Data’!$A$2:$S$332,4,FALSE)>F1,”-“,IF(VLOOKUP(C1,’Historical Data’!$A$2:$S$332,4,FALSE)

And now for the winners

I wish I had more prizes to give. All the tips are truly marvelous. I have learned several cool uses of excel formulas. But alas, we have only 2 prizes in this contest.

Dashboard bundle from Bonavista Systems goes to Govi

The excel formulas 2007 book by John Walkenbach goes to DMurphy

Both the winners are randomly selected. I have already sent them an e-mail with the further instructions to claim the prizes.

Big thank you to Bonavista Systems, the contest sponsor

I would like to thank Andreas from Bonavista systems for sponsoring the dashboard bundle. Bonavista systems makes some really cool tools for excel dashboards, spark-lines and helps you make cleaner and better looking charts. Checkout their products and know more about them from their site.

Further Resources if you want to learn Excel Formulas


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2 Responses to “Weighted Sorting in Excel ”

  1. Oleg says:

    Just add a column calculating the "performance" or whatever is your criteria and sort by it? No?
    have no patience to waste 13min. Save your time too.

  2. Andrew says:

    Just thought I would mention, the "weird" custom sort behavior mentioned at 5:45 where "% return" doesn't appear to be sorting is because the "August Purchases" field has the sort preference and since these are such unique values, no additional sorting is possible on the "% return" field. If there were two entries that had the same "Customer Since" year AND the same "August Purchases" amount, THEN you would see a sorting of the "% return" on these two entries.

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