Did you just start using Microsoft Excel? But you are feeling overwhelmed by staring at rows and columns, and you don’t know where to start. Well, Excel is a toolbox that can make your life easier with “Formulas”. It might sound intimidating, but don’t worry, they are just simple instructions that tell Excel what to do with your data. And Microsoft Excel will be your most trusted go-to tool, whether you're crunching numbers, managing budgets, or organising data.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through 15 essential Excel formulas that every beginner should know, the building blocks that will turn you from a Spreadsheet beginner into a confident, capable user.
Excel formulas are your secret weapon that makes your data come alive. They’re equations that perform calculations, manipulate text, or analyse information in your spreadsheets. You will see that every formula starts with an equal sign (=), followed by numbers, cell references (like A1 or B2), operators (+, -, *, /), or functions (like SUM or AVERAGE). For example, if you want to add the numbers in cells A1 and A2, you’d write = A1 + A2. Excel reads this, looks at the cells, does the calculation, and shows the result in the cell where you entered the formula. It’s like giving Microsoft Excel a to-do list, and it handles the rest.
Formulas are a game-changer because they will save you time and cut down on mistakes. Imagine you are adding up a long list of expenses by hand, easy to mess up, right? With formulas, Excel does the work fast and updates automatically if your data changes. They’re also great for tasks like finding averages, checking conditions, or looking up information, making your spreadsheets more powerful and less stressful to manage.
Here are 10 easy formulas every beginner should know. Each one is explained with simple examples to help you get started.
The SUM function adds up the numbers in the cells you select. It’s used for cells that contain numeric values and works best when you're adding two or more cells together, and you don’t need a calculator anymore.
So, now if you want to add the number, what you have to do is type =SUM (number1, number2, ...) or =SUM(range). For example, you have sales numbers in cells A1 to A5(10, 20, 30, 40, 50). Type =SUM (A1:A5).
And Excel gives you 150.
Now it’s time to know about another formula, which is AVERAGE(). It is one of the most used formulas in Excel. So, when you want to know the average of a set of numbers, what you will have to do is select the group of cells, or you can select a single cell also. Then type =AVERAGE(number1, number2, ...) or =AVERAGE(range). For example, if you have test scores in B1 to B4 (80, 90, 85, 95), type =AVERAGE (B1:B4) and then click Yes.
And you will see the answer, which is 87.5.
Counting with Excel can’t be so hard. With the COUNT() formula, you can count how many cells contain numbers in your selected range. And it will skip over any blank cells or those with text, dates, or other non-numeric content.
You can count any kind of data, whether it's text, dates, or numbers; all you have to type is =COUNT (range). For example, in C1 to C5, you have (10, "apple", 20, "", 30). Type = COUNT(C1:C5) and Excel will return 3, because only three cells have numbers.
The IF() function in Excel is a simple way to make decisions in your spreadsheet. Just like an if-else statement in programming, it checks whether a condition is true or false. If the condition is true, it returns one value; if it’s false, it returns another. You can think of this as a mini decision-maker.
So, when you want to apply if formula, you have to type =IF(), and under the bracket, you have to include the condition like =IF(condition, value_if_true, value_if_false). For example, you have a score of 75 in A1. So, you have to type =IF(A1>=60, "Pass", "Fail"). If 75 is greater than or equal to 60, Excel shows "Pass".
Are you feeling lost between rows and columns while looking for specific data? No worries, here Excel comes with a formula called VLOOKUP(), which will help you to find your desired data easily within a few seconds.
What it will do is if you look for a value in the first column of a table and return a value from another column in the same row. For this, you have to type the formula, which is =VLOOKUP (). Inside the bracket, you can insert the lookup value, table_array, col_index_num, [range_lookup]).
Suppose you have a table in A1:B5 with names and ages (A2:A5 has "Alice", "Bob", "Cat", "Doll", "Elite") and B2:B5 has 25, 30,35,40,45). So, you have to type =VLOOKUP("Bob", A1:B5, 2, FALSE) to find Bob’s age (30).
Struggling to square a number, find a cube, or calculate exponential growth? Well, meet the formula called POWER(), also known as Proper Case. It will change the text so that each word starts with a capital letter. This Power formula is mostly used in sectors like finance, science, and engineering, where exponential growth, compound interest are common.
To use this formula, you have to type =POWER(A1, 2) to raise the number in A1 to the power of 2. You can change the 2 to any number for different powers. For example, if you have 5 in A1, then =POWER (A1, 2), it will give you 25 (5 squared).
Looking for the smallest number in your table? Well, meet the formula called MIN(). From the word MIN, you may get it that this formula helps you to find the smallest number in a list. You don’t have to spend hours to find that. It finds and returns the lowest number from a selected range of cells.
So, to find a minimum value, you have to type =MIN(number1, number2, ...) or =MIN(range). For example, suppose you have a table of prices in E1 to E5 (25, 30, 15, 40, 20), and you are looking for 15, so you have to type =MIN (E1:E5), and Excel will show 15.
You can think of MAX() as a reverse form of MIN(), where MIN helps to find the minimum value, and MAX helps you to find the highest value from the range of cells. And to find the maximum value, you have to type =MAX(number1, number2, ...) or =MAX(range). For example, suppose you have a sales table and the values are located in A1 to A5 (100, 200, 150, 300, 250), and you are looking for the highest sale, so you have to type =MAX (A1:A5).
And you will get 300 as a result, because this is the highest number in the cell.
You need to join text from different cells, but don’t know how? Then, meet with a formula that will make your work easy, because this formula combines text from multiple cells into one. Or you can say this formula glues text together. And remember to add space (" ") between text to avoid squishing words together. So, to use this formula you have to write =CONCAT(text1, text2, ...) (in newer Excel versions) or =CONCATENATE (text1, text2, ...).
For example, in A1 you have "John" and in A2 you have "Doe". Type =CONCAT (A1, " ", A2), and you will get "John Doe".
Want to clean your text? Meet, TRIM() function, this is something that will help you to clean up your text by removing any extra spaces, whether they’re at the beginning, middle, or end of a cell. This is especially helpful when you try to find duplicates, since hidden spaces can make identical values look different to Excel. It will make your text look professional.
To use Trim, you have to write =TRIM(A1) to clean up the text in cell A1. It will keep just one space between words. Let’s see an example, suppose in A1 has “Hello World” with messy spaces, and you type the formula =TRIM(A1), and it will turn into “Hello World” by removing extra spaces, and making it look perfect.
The TODAY() function is something that will help you to automatically return the current date, you don’t have to type anything. It will update every day, so your spreadsheet always shows today’s date, whether you’re tracking deadlines, logging tasks, or just staying organised. So, what you have to do is just type =TODAY() and hit Enter.
For Example, on May 18, 2025, =TODAY () shows “5/18/2025.” Tomorrow, it’ll update to “5/19/2025” all by itself.
The DATEDIF() function is a go-to tool for working with time-based data. It calculates the difference between two dates and lets you choose how you want the result, in days, months, or years. It is perfect for tracking durations like project timelines and time between events, and ages like how long until your birthday or how old you are.
To imply this, you have to write =DATEDIF(A1, B1, "D") to find the number of days between dates in A1 and B1. You can use "M" for months or "Y" for years instead of "D". For example, if A1 is "1/1/2025" and B1 is "5/18/2025", =DATEDIF (A1, B1, "D") shows 137 days. Try "M" and it shows 4 months.
Meet the formula REPLACE(), you can think of it as a text editor. If you want to edit and clean your data quickly, then you can use this formula. It will let you swap out part of a text string with something new. Here’s what each part means:
and the syntax is =REPLACE(A1, 2, 3, "XYZ") to replace 3 characters in A1, starting at position 2, with "XYZ". For example, If A1 has “Hello”, =REPLACE(A1, 2, 3, "i") changes it to “Hilo”. It replaced “ell” with “i”.
You can think of HLOOKUP as your row-scanning detective. It searches the top row of a table for a value and grabs info from a row below, like finding a price by product name. The formula of HLOOKUP looks like this =HLOOKUP("Item1", A1:C3, 2, FALSE) to find “Item1” in the top row of A1:C3 and get the value from the second row. For example, If A1:C1 has “Item1, Item2, Item3” and A2:C2 has prices $10, $15, $20, =HLOOKUP("Item1", A1:C3, 2, FALSE), it will return 10.
The SUBSTITUTE() function works like REPLACE(), but with a twist; instead of specifying positions, you simply tell Excel which text to change and what to replace it with. Just provide the old text and the new text, and Excel will find the specific text and replace it with something new, like updating a word in a sentence.
You can use it by typing =SUBSTITUTE(A1, "old", "new") to replace “old” with “new” in cell A1. Add a number to pick which “old” to replace if there’s more than one. For example, if A1 has “cat hat cat”, =SUBSTITUTE(A1, "cat", "dog") turns it into “dog hat dog”. You can try =SUBSTITUTE(A1, "cat", "dog", 1) for just the first “cat”, giving “dog hat cat”.
There you have it, 15 simple Excel formulas that’ll make your life easier. Start with these, play around in Excel, and you’ll be amazed at how quickly you can handle data like an expert. SUM is most people's favourite because it saves so much time, and IF and VLOOKUP are close seconds for their flexibility. Which one are you excited to try first? The more you use these formulas, the more confident you’ll get.
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