Most useful Excel functions with formula examples

TEXT function

TEXT(value, format_text) is used to convert a number or a date into a test string in the specified format, where:

• Value is a numeric value you want to convert to text.
• Format_text is the desired format.

The following formulas demonstrate the Excel TEXT function in action:

=TEXT(A1,"mm/dd/yyyy") - convert a date in cell A1 into a text string in the traditional US date format, such as "01/01/2015" (month/day/year).

=TEXT(A1,"€#,##0.00") - converts a number in A1 into a currency text string such as "€3.00".

TEXT formula examples:

• TEXT function to convert a date to text format
• TEXT formulas to convert a number to text

CONCATENATE function

CONCATENATE(text1, [text2], …) is designed to join several pieces of text together or combine values from several cells into a single cell. An analogues result can be achieved by using the Excel & operator, as demonstrated in the following screenshot.

You can find plenty more formula examples in the tutorial CONCATENATE in Excel: combine text strings, cells and columns.

TRIM function

TRIM(text) removes leading, trailing spaces as well as excess spaces between words. Where text is either a text string or reference to the cell containing the text from which you want to remove spaces. The following screenshot demonstrates an example of usage:

For more formula examples, see 3 ways to remove spaces between words / numbers in Excel.

SUBSTITUTE function

SUBSTITUTE(text, old_text, new_text, [instance_num]) replaces one set of characters with another in a specified cell or a text string. The syntax of the SUBSTITUTE function is as follows:

• Text - the original text string or reference to a cell where you want to substitute certain characters.
• Old_text - the characters you want to replace.
• New_text - the characters you want to replace the old text with.
• Nth_appearance - an optional parameter that specifies which occurrence of old_text you want to replace with new_text. If omitted, then every occurrence of the old text will be replaced with the new text.

For example, the following SUBSTITUTE formula replaces all commas in cell A1 with semicolons:

=SUBSTITUTE(A2, ",", ";")

SUBSTITUTE formula examples:

• Removing line breaks in a cell
• Converting text strings with custom delimiters to dates

VALUE function

VALUE(text) - converts a text string to a number.

This function is really helpful when it comes to converting text-formatted values representing the numbers into numbers that can be used in other Excel formulas and calculations.

VALUE formula examples:

• Convert text-formatted digits to number
• VALUE function to convert text to date

EXACT function

EXACT(text1, text2) compares two text strings and returns TRUE if both values are exactly the same, including case, FALSE otherwise.

For example, if A2 is "apples" and B2 is "Apples", the formula =EXACT(A2, B2) will returns FALSE, because they are not exact match.

The EXACT function is rarely used on its own, but it's helpful in more complex tasks such as doing a case-sensitive Vlookup in Excel.

Functions to change text's case (UPPER, LOWER, PROPER)

Microsoft Excel provides 3 text functions to convert between UPPER, lower and Proper case.

UPPER(text) - converts all characters in a specified text string to upper case.

LOWER(text) - changes all uppercase letters in a text string to lowercase.

Proper(text) - capitalizes the first letter of each word and converts all other letters to lowercase (more precisely, it capitalizes the letters that follow any character other than a letter).

In all three functions, the text argument can be a text string enclosed in quotation marks, a reference to a cell containing the text or a formula that returns the text.

More formula examples to convert text's case can be found in Changing text case in Excel to UPPER, lower or Proper.

Extract text characters (LEFT, RIGHT, MID)

If you need a formula to return a certain number of characters from a text string, use one of the following Excel functions.

LEFT(text, [num_chars]) - returns a specified number of characters from the beginning of a text string.

RIGHT(text,[num_chars]) - returns a specified number of characters from the end of a text string.

MID(text, start_num, num_chars) - returns a specific number of characters from a text string, starting at any position that you specify.

In these functions, you supply the following arguments:

• Text - a text string or a reference to a cell containing the characters you want to extract.
• Start_num - indicates where to start (i.e. the position of the first character you want to extract).
• Num_chars - the number of characters you want to extract.

One of the main uses of these Excel text functions is splitting a cell's content into several cells, as demonstrated in Formulas to split cells in Excel.

AND, OR, XOR functions

AND(logical1, [logical2], …) - returns TRUE if all of the arguments evaluate to TRUE, FALSE otherwise.

OR(logical1, [logical2], …) - returns TRUE if at least one of the arguments is TRUE.

XOR(logical1, [logical2],…) - returns a logical Exclusive Or of all arguments. This function was introduced in Excel 2013 and is not available in earlier versions.

Logical functions formula examples:

• AND formula examples
• OR formula examples
• XOR formula examples

NOT function

NOT(logical) - reverses a value of its argument, i.e. if logical evaluates to FALSE, the NOT function returns TRUE and vice versa.

For instance, both of the following formulas will return FALSE:

=NOT(TRUE)

=NOT(2*2=4)

For more NOT function examples, see Using the NOT function in Excel.

IF function

The Excel IF function is sometimes called a "conditional function" because it returns a value based on the condition that you specify. IF's syntax is as follows:

An IF formula tests the condition(s) expressed in the logical_test argument and returns one value (value_if_true) if the condition is met and another value (value_if_false) if the condition is not met.

For example, the formula =IF(A1<>"", "good", "bad") returns "good" if there's any value in cell A1, "bad" otherwise.

And here's an example of the nested IF formula that "deciphers" the exam score in cell A2:

=IF(A2>80, "Brilliant", IF(A2>50, "Good", IF(A2>30, "Fair", "Poor")))

IF formula examples:

• IF formulas for numbers, text, dates, blank cells
• IF statement with multiple AND/OR conditions
• Nested IF functions in Excel
• IF function in array formulas
• Using IF with other Excel functions

IFERROR and IFNA functions

Both functions are used to check if a certain formula evaluates to an error, and if it does, the MS Excel functions return a specified value instead.

IFERROR(value, value_if_error) - checks if the formula or expression evaluates to an error. If it does, the formula returns the value supplied in the value_if_error argument, otherwise, the result of the formula is returned. This function handles all possible Excel errors, including VALUE, N/A, NAME, REF, NUM, and others. It is available in Excel 2007 and higher.

IFNA(value, value_if_na) - introduced in Excel 2013, it works similarly to IFERROR, but handles #N/A errors only.

The following examples demonstrate the simplest IFERROR formula:

IFERROR / IFNA formula examples:

• Using the IFERROR and IFNA functions in Excel
• Excel VLOOKUP with IFERROR / ISERROR

Finding the sum of cells

Four essential Excel functions to add up the values of cells in a specified range follow below.

Generating random numbers (RAND and RANDBETWEEN)

Microsoft Excel provides 2 functions to generate random numbers. Both are volatile functions, meaning that a new number is returned every time the worksheet calculate s.

RAND() - returns a random real (decimal) number between 0 and 1.

RANDBETWEEN(bottom, top) - returns a random integer between the bottom and top numbers that you specify.

The following tutorial makes a pretty good job explaining the nuts and bolts of each function with formula examples: How to use RAND and RANDBETWEEN functions in Excel.

Rounding functions

There exist a variety of functions to round off numbers in Excel, and our Excel Rounding Tutorial makes a good job explaining how to use those functions based on your criteria. Please click on the function's name to learn its syntax and examples of uses.

• ROUND - round the number to the specified number of digits.
• ROUNDUP - round the number upward to the specified number of digits.
• ROUNDDOWN - round the number downward to the specified number of digits.
• MROUND - rounds the number upward or downward to the specified multiple.
• FLOOR - round the number down to the specified multiple.
• CEILING - round the number up to the specified multiple.
• INT - round the number down to the nearest integer.
• TRUNC - truncate the number to a specified number of decimal places.
• EVEN - round the number up to the nearest even integer.
• ODD - round the number up to the nearest odd integer.

Getting the remainder after division (MOD function)

MOD(number, divisor) returns the remainder after the number argument is divided by divisor.

The function comes in really handy in many scenarios, for example:

• Sum values in every other or N^th row
• Alternating row colors in Excel

Finding the largest, smallest and average values

MIN(number1, [number2], …) - returns the minimal value from the list of arguments.

MAX(number1, [number2], …) - returns the maximum value from the list of arguments

AVERAGE(number1, [number2], …) - returns the average of the arguments.

SMALL(array, k) - returns the k-th smallest value in the array.

LARGE(array, k) - returns the k-th largest value in the array.

The following screenshot demonstrates the basic statistical functions in action.

Formula examples:

• Using IF with AVERAGE, MIN and MAX functions
• Calculating the average of the top N items in the list - Example 1. Calculate average of the top N items in the list
• VLOOKUP with AVERAGE, MAX, MIN (array formulas)
• Sum N largest / smallest numbers in a range (array formula)

Counting cells

Below is a list of Excel functions that let you count the cells containing a certain data type or based on the condition(s) that you specify.

COUNT(value1, [value2], …) - returns the number of numerical values (numbers and dates) in the list of arguments.

COUNTA(value1, [value2], …) - returns the number of non-empty cells in the list of arguments. It counts cells containing any information, including error values and empty text strings ("") returned by other formulas.

COUNTBLANK(range) - counts the number of empty cells in a specified range. Cells with empty text strings ("") are also counted as blank cells.

COUNTIF(range, criteria) - counts the number of cells within the range that meet the specified criteria.

COUNTIFS(criteria_range1, criteria1, [criteria_range2, criteria2]…) - counts the number of cells that meet all of the specified criteria.

The following screenshot demonstrates the counting cells functions in action:

Counting cells formula examples:

• Counting cells with text (COUNTA and COUNT functions)
• Counting empty cells in Excel (COUNTBLANK)
• Counting blank or not blank cells (COUNTIF)
• Using COUNTIF in Excel
• Counting cells with multiple criteria (COUNTIFS)

VLOOKUP function

The VLOOKUP function looks for a specified value in the first column and pulls the matching data from the same row in another column. It requires the following arguments:

• lookup_value - the value to search for.
• table_array - two or more columns of data.
• col_index_num - the number of the column to pull the data from.
• range_lookup - determines whether to search with exact match (FALSE) or approximate match (TRUE or omitted).

For example, the formula =VLOOKUP("apples", A2:C10, 3) searches for "apples" in cells A2 through A10 and returns a matching value from column C:

VLOOKUP formula examples:

• Excel VLOOKUP tutorial for beginners
• How to use VLOOKUP & SUM or SUMIF functions in Excel
• Two-way lookup, nested Vlookup with multiple criteria
• 4 ways to do a case-sensitive Vlookup in Excel
• Excel VLOOKUP not working - solutions for N/A, NAME and VALUE errors

INDEX function

INDEX(array, row_num, [column_num]) - returns a reference to a cell within array based on the row and column numbers that you specify.

Here is a simple INDEX formula: =INDEX(A1:C10, 3 ,4) that searches in cells A1 through C10 and returns a value at the intersection of the 3^rd row and 4^th column, which is cell D3.

The following tutorial explains the INDEX function in full detail: 6 most efficient uses of the INDEX function in Excel.

MATCH function

MATCH(lookup_value, lookup_array, [match_type]) - searches for lookup_value in lookup_array, and then returns the relative position of that item in the range.

The combination of the MATCH and INDEX functions can be used as a more powerful and versatile alternative to Excel's VLOOKUP, as demonstrated in the following tutorial: INDEX & MATCH - a better alternative to VLOOKUP in Excel.

INDIRECT function

INDIRECT(ref_text, [a1]) - returns a cell or range reference specified by a text string.

Here's an example of the simplest INDIRECT formula to get the general idea:

In real worksheets, INDIRECT formulas are often used to dynamically refer to another sheet or workbook, to lock a cell reference or to create dependent drop down lists.

INDIRECT formula examples:

• How to use the INDIRECT function in Excel
• How to make a dependent drop down list in Excel

OFFSET function

OFFSET(reference, rows, cols, [height], [width]) - returns a reference to a range of cells that is offset from a starting cell or a range of cells by the specified number of rows and columns.

For example, =OFFSET(A1, 1, 2) returns the value in cell C2 because it's 1 row down and 2 columns to the left from A1.

For more OFFSET formula examples, please see: Using OFFSET function in Excel.

TRANSPOSE function

TRANSPOSE(array) - transforms a horizontal range of cells into a vertical range and vice versa, i.e. converts rows to columns and columns to rows.

The following tutorial provides formula examples and explains the strong and weak points of the function: Excel TRANSPOSE function to convert row to column.

HYPERLINK function

HYPERLINK(link_location, [friendly_name]) - Creates a hyperlink to a document stored on a local network or the Internet.

For the step-by-step guidance in using the HYPERLINK function, please see: How to add a hyperlink to another Excel sheet.

FV function

FV(rate, nper ,pmt ,[pv], [type]) - calculates the future value of an investment based on a constant interest rate.

The following tutorial explains each of the arguments in detail and guides you in creating a universal compound interest calculator in your worksheets: Creating an advanced compound interest calculator for Excel.

Creating dates

• DATE - returns the serial number of a specified date.
• DATEVALUE - converts a text string representing the date to date format.

Current date and time

• TODAY - returns the current date.
• NOW - returns the current date and time.

Extracting dates and date components

• DAY - returns the day of the month.
• MONTH - returns the month of a specified date.
• YEAR - returns the year of a specified date.
• EOMONTH - returns the last day of the month.
• WEEKDAY - returns the day of the week.
• WEEKNUM - returns the week number of a date.

Calculating date difference

• DATEDIF - returns the difference between two dates.
• EDATE - returns a date that is the specified number of months before or after the start date.
• YEARFRAC - calculates the fraction of the year between 2 dates.

Calculate workdays

• WORKDAY - calculates a date that is a specified number of working days before or after the start date.
• WORKDAY.INTL - calculates a date that is a specified number of weekdays before or after the start date, with custom weekend parameters.
• NETWORKDAYS - returns the number of working days between two dates.
• NETWORKDAYS.INTL - returns the number of workdays between two dates with custom weekends.