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How many functions do you know?

G

GreenBoy

New Member
I was pondering the meaning of life the other day (OK I was bored), and got around eventually to listing how many Excel functions I knew, and how many I could type in without reference to the help system (e.g. could type them in off of the top of my head, including all options - eg IF(test_condition, action_if_true, action_if_false)) and was rather shocked on how few I knew in this depth.


So how many do you know to the extent you can use them without reference to the manual?


Under 10? Over?
 
Too many to count. Which is probably the same answer for a lot of people on the board. :D


They just sort of pop in ur head when you have certain excel problems pop up infront of you
 
Well that's encouraging as a straw poll taken of my work colleagues seemed to show most were in the 1-10 mark that they could use without thinking.


My guess is that as this is an excel forum most people should know quite a few, but they are keen users of excel, where as my colleagues are just ordinary users and only use what they have to, to get their work done - which sadly means they only need to know a few.


Thanks for your comment Montrey.
 
Let's give a shot..

AND, OR, IF, LOOKUP, VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, SUM, SUMIF, SUMIFS, COUNT, COUNTA, COUNTBLANK, COUNTIF, COUNTIFS, SUMPRODUCT, INDEX, MATCH, SUBTOTAL, NOT, PRODUCT, MMULT, DATEDIF, ISNA, ISERR, ISERROR, ISEVEN, ISODD, NA, TODAY, NOW, CHOOSE, FV, PV, NPR, LEFT, RIGHT, MID, SUBSTITUTE, REPLACE, DOLLAR, VALUE, TEXT, SMALL, LARGE, MIN, MAX, RANK. (Count: 47) That's all that comes to my head immediately.


But agree w/ Montrey, they tend to pop-up in my head. A sort of, "I don't actively know it, but I know where to go to remember".
 
Hi, GreenBoy!

With the tooltips that come with -at least- 2007 version and actual 2010, I reduced the access to the embedded detailed help in most cases. But I still use the "f(x)" button at the left of the edit formula bar frequently. Does that count for with or without?

Regards!
 
Good day Greenboy

I was wondering if you could tell me what the extra closing parentheses does at the end of your "if function"
 
@bobhc


It closes the first parenthesis from beginning of parenthetical statement.

system (e.g. could type them in off of the top of my head, including all options - eg IF(test_condition, action_if_true, action_if_false)) and
Click to expand...
 
Good day Luke M

You say that it closes the first parenthesis from beginning of parenthetical statement, that I understand... so what does the inner closing single (as I see it as the other is paired up)parentheses do.

And may I offer congratulations on reaching another mile stone in the help you offer others, well done 2000 times
 
@bobhc

There are 2 opening parenthesis, 2 closing. Inner pair is for the function, outer pair is for the sentence. Changing the outer pair to brackets it would be:

system [e.g. could type them in off of the top of my head, including all options - eg IF(test_condition, action_if_true, action_if_false)] and



simplified


system [... - eg IF(test_condition, action_if_true, action_if_false)] and
Click to expand...

Does that help?
 
Luke M

My misunderstanding I read the post from he "If" as GreenBoy had preceded the "If" with eg, I was reading it as IF(test_condition, action_if_true, action_if_false))
 
Thanks for clearing that up Luke - I was starting to panic there!


SirJB7 - jury is out on that one.


Luke M - thanks for the list - never used DOLLAR, and I know of FV, PF and NPR - but generally never use them, so would need to refresh my memory before using them in anger - otherwise you list pretty much matches mine, which I guess isn't too shabby.


I do also know the ROMAN function, but again have never used it in real life - and I think it is the most useless function in Excel.


Thanks to every one who replied
 
Hi, GreenBoy!

I disagree. I've used it many times in projects with historical dates, and for educational purposes to teach kids roman numbers.

I think that the most unuseful function is BAHTTEXT.

Regards!
 
@Montrey

Hi, tocayo!

hahaha :)

Regards!

PS: I hope I shouldn't add a "...Gaviría", should I?
 
SirJB7 - I think it has limited use, and as there is not reciprocal of it to convert Roman numerals back to decimals.


Just my opinion.
 
Hi, GreenBoy!

Of course your opinion is absolutely valid. I should search into Excel 97 files backup (if they're still readable, but they exist!, don't know where but the do) for that workbooks. I remembered having developed an UDF to perform the way back. Don't promise anything, but if they pop-up, I'll post the function here.

Regards!
 
It's not the size of your list

It's what you do with it that's important
 
Well my list is 0, I never get to use them consistently so always have look them up every time I need to do something new. Just wish I worked with excel all the time.
 
I think most of the functions in excel are present in our "Passive Memory".


It depends how much time one give to excel and how keen one is in using excel. Once I start over some formula, I get that function stand out from there (Passive Memory) saying "You can try with me"! Sometimes i get stuck with its syntax and i have to see Help file, that is because i don't use it that frequently, on the other hand some functions are so often used that i don't need to look any where.


Sometimes even syntax and functions are in your Active Memory, but you need to look at them for some particular use, like INDEX() used as an array or reference form, Using SUM() with OFFSET(), Using Last two options of OFFSET() that is used rarely, Declaring FALSE in VLOOKUP() etc etc.


To me it is good if you completely remember a function, but more important is that you should remember its application, that is more important. :)


Regards,

Faseeh
 
Hi, Lymm!


I should have a negation about it, but there are two things of daily use for which I ever ever had to check the help:

In Excel, functions SEARCH/FIND.

In VBA, function InStr.


They have the parameters inverted, and each time I have to use one of them, it's an absolutely random process: 50-50.


I'd like to have a private conversation with the guys who defined/implemented those functions... without witnesses...


Regards!
 
Hi, b(ut)ob(ut)hc!

Shhh... don't say anything (my lawyer's advise).

Have a good day.

Regards!
 
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