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

작성자:Leon

번역자Editorial

개정자Editorial

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.