Learning Excel: Cells
Cells and ranges
Fern turns her laptop towards you. "Everything from Saturday is in there. But where am I supposed to look?"
Columns, rows and cells
A spreadsheet is one big grid. The columns have letters (A, B, C…), the rows have numbers (1, 2, 3…).
Where a column and a row cross, you find a cell. It is named after its column and its row: the cell in column B and row 2 is called B2. Always the letter first, then the number.
B2 holds the price of small chips. The box at the top, the Name Box, shows which cell is selected.
2.8
| 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 |
Ranges
Often you don't want one cell, but a whole block of them. That's called a range. You write the first and the last cell, with a colon in between.
B2:B9 means: every cell from B2 down to B9. Here, that's all the prices.
A range can be wider too. A2:B3 is a little block of two columns and two rows: four cells.
| 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 |
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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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