Excel Formulas Cheat Sheet: the 20 you actually use
Bookmark this page. Every formula below has its own short lesson — click through when you need the steps.
Adding and counting
| Formula | What it does |
|---|---|
=SUM(A1:A10) |
Add the numbers — lesson |
=AVERAGE(A1:A10) |
The mean |
=COUNT(A1:A10) |
How many cells hold numbers |
=COUNTA(A1:A10) |
How many cells are not empty |
=SUMIF(A:A,"Ana",B:B) |
Add rows matching one condition — lesson |
=COUNTIF(A:A,"Ana") |
Count rows matching one condition — lesson |
=SUMIFS(C:C,A:A,"Ana",B:B,"Mar") |
Add rows matching several conditions |
=MAX(A1:A10) / =MIN(A1:A10) |
Largest / smallest |
Looking things up
| Formula | What it does |
|---|---|
=XLOOKUP(D1,A:A,B:B) |
Find D1 in A, return B — lesson |
=VLOOKUP(D1,A:B,2,FALSE) |
Same, older Excel — lesson |
=INDEX(B:B,MATCH(D1,A:A,0)) |
Same, any direction — lesson |
Decisions
| Formula | What it does |
|---|---|
=IF(A1>100,"High","Low") |
One result if true, another if not |
=IFERROR(A1/B1,"") |
Hide errors, show blank instead |
=AND(A1>0,B1>0) / =OR(...) |
Combine tests inside IF |
Text
| Formula | What it does |
|---|---|
=A1&" "&B1 |
Join text — lesson |
=TRIM(A1) |
Remove extra spaces |
=LEFT(A1,3) / =RIGHT(A1,3) |
First / last 3 characters |
=LEN(A1) |
How many characters |
=UPPER(A1) / =PROPER(A1) |
CAPITALS / Title Case |
Dates
| Formula | What it does |
|---|---|
=TODAY() |
Today’s date, updates daily |
=B1-A1 |
Days between two dates |
=EOMONTH(A1,0) |
Last day of that month |
Three habits
- Start every formula with
=. - Press F4 to lock a cell with
$before dragging. - Exact match:
FALSEin VLOOKUP,0in MATCH.
20 years with spreadsheets and enterprise systems. Writes one short, plain-English Excel lesson a day. Got an Excel question? learnexceleasycom@gmail.com
