Getting started in Excel or spreadsheets: arithmetic operators and sign

14/07/26 •0•0

Within each Excel cell we can perform different calculations. Let's start by looking at what we can do with arithmetic and reference operations

Écrit parLeon

Traduit parEditorial

Révisé parEditorial

We saw in the last lesson that when you click on an Excel cell, you can edit it. Any text that starts with "=" will make Excel interpret the text as code.

To start writing code in Excel, we first need to understand the program's language. Let's now look at its operators:

Arithmetic Operators

Plus sign ( + )	Addition 5+5
Minus sign ( - )	Subtraction 5-4
Asterisk ( )	Multiplication 44
Division sign ( / )	Division 8/8
Percentage sign ( % )	Percentage 15%
Caret ( ^ )	Exponentiation 6^2

Examples

= 3 + 2 ---> will return 5

= 2 - 1 ----> will return 1

= 2 * 3 ------> will return 6

= 4 / 2 -----> will return 2

= 15% -----> will return 0.15

= 3 ^ 2 -----> will return 9

= 9 ^(1/2) ---> will return 3. The exponent of a division is the same as the root of the divisor.

Signs and What They Indicate

Criterion	Operator
Greater than	>
Less than	<
Equal to	=
Not equal to	<>
Greater than or equal to	>=
Less than or equal to	<=

Examples

= 3<>2 ---> will return true

= 2 > 1 ----> will return true

= 2 < 1 ------> will return false

=1 <= 1 -----> will return true

= 2 >= 1 -----> will return true

Operator Precedence

Excel, like most of us Brazilian humans, reads from left to right. In addition, it gives preference to calculations in the following order:

1. Inside parentheses

2. Root or power

3. Multiplication or division

4. Addition or subtraction.

Example

\[ (80 - 2) · 4 - (10 + (40 + 10/2)) \]

First, it will solve the innermost parentheses: (40 + 10/2). Right after that, since there is no root or power, it will solve the division 10/2, which is equal to 5. So we will have: (40 + 5) = 45.

Once the innermost parentheses have been solved, we move on to the following ones. The formula is currently: = (80 - 2) · 4 - (10 + 45). Excel will now solve the leftmost parentheses: (80 - 2) = 78. Then it will solve: (10 + 45) = 55.

Now we have the following equation: 78 · 4 - 55. Since there are no more parentheses, no root, and no power, it will solve the multiplication first: 78 · 4 = 312.

The equation is now: 312 - 55. Solving it, we end up with 257 as the answer.

Exercises

1. Type the following expressions in Excel and see if you get the answer:

2. Solve each expression below and check whether it is true or false:

3. Write a formula in Excel that calculates the average of three numbers (5, 10, 15) and checks whether the average is greater than 10.

4. Write a formula in Excel that calculates the sum of two numbers (8 and 12) and checks whether the sum is less than or equal to 20.

5. Write a formula in Excel that calculates the product of two numbers (4 and 5) and checks whether the product is different from 20.

6. Suppose the price of a product is in cell A1 and the discount (as a percentage) is in cell B1. Write a formula in Excel that calculates the final price after the discount.

7. Suppose you have an initial value in cell A1, an interest rate in cell B1, and a number of periods in cell C1. Write a formula in Excel that calculates the future value with compound interest.

8. Given a number in cell A1, write a formula that returns 1 if the number is positive and 0 if it is negative.

9. Given three sides of a triangle in cells A1, B1, and C1, write a formula that returns 1 if the sides form a valid triangle and 0 otherwise.