Learning Excel: Arithmetic

Maths like at school

Fern wants to know what a customer pays for a full bag of chips. "Adding, subtracting, Excel can do that too, can't it?" It certainly can. And it knows the order of operations better than most beer mats.

The operators

In a formula you calculate with + (plus), - (minus), * (times) and / (divided by). With ^ you raise to a power: =3^2 is 3 times 3, so 9.

In H2, a formula works out how much more large chips cost than small ones: the price in B3 minus the one in B2.

=B3-B2

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
1	Product	Price	Quantity	Revenue	VAT	Incl. VAT	Discount
2	Small chips	£2.80	64		6%		10%	0.8
3	Large chips	£3.60	41		6%
4	Battered sausage	£4.50	27		6%
5	Fish cake	£3.90	35		6%
6	Curry sauce	£2.20	52		6%
7	Mushy peas	£0.80	70		6%
8	Cola	£2.50	48		21%
9	Water	£2.00	22		21%
10	Total
11

Who goes first?

Excel calculates the way you learned at school (BIDMAS): first ^, then * and /, and only then + and -.

So =2+3*4 is 2 plus 12, which is 14. Not 20.

Want Excel to work something out first? Put it in brackets: =(2+3)*4 works out 2 plus 3 first.

Try it yourself

In H2, Fern wants the price halfway between small and large chips. Her formula gives £4.60, more than both. Fix it.

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G
1	Product	Price	Quantity	Revenue	VAT	Incl. VAT	Discount
2	Small chips	£2.80	64		6%		10%
3	Large chips	£3.60	41		6%
4	Battered sausage	£4.50	27		6%
5	Fish cake	£3.90	35		6%
6	Curry sauce	£2.20	52		6%
7	Mushy peas	£0.80	70		6%
8	Cola	£2.50	48		21%
9	Water	£2.00	22		21%
10	Total
11

My Excel writes

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The full lesson has 5 exercises, from easy to challenging, with hints, points and a streak you can build.

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