Analyzing Your Excel 2013 Data

Working with functions

As you’ve already seen in this section, functions are the engines that drive your formulas. They do the actual processing, whether the formula calls for simple or complex calculations. When you add a function to a formula, the function needs to know which cells to use in the calculation.

Find the function you want

1. Click the cell in which you want to add the function and then click the Formulas tab.

2. On the far left side of the Function Library group, click the Insert Function button.

   The Insert Function dialog box opens.

3. Click the category down arrow to display the drop-down list and then select the function category that you want to view.

   You can choose from All, Financial, Date & Time, Math & Trig, Statistical, Lookup & Reference, Database, Text, Logical, Information, Engineering, Cube, Compatibility, or Web categories. Upon choosing a category, the list of functions available in the Select A Function list changes.

4. Click the function that you want to examine.

5. Click OK to select the function

   The Function Arguments dialog box opens, in which you can specify additional information for your formula. (Read on for more about working with function arguments.)

   

Add function arguments

1. When you click OK in the Insert Function dialog box to add a function to your worksheet, the Function Arguments dialog box opens.

   The options you see in the Function Arguments dialog box will vary, depending on which function you have selected.

2. Enter or choose the range of cells that you want to include in the formula. Select any additional options that are required by the selected function.

3. Click OK to close the dialog box and add the formula to the selected worksheet cell.