Working with math in Excel is similar to working on paper, except that you actually do less work! All you have to do is type the values and the arithmetic operators and then leave it to Excel to do all the calculations. You can easily change the values you’ve entered if necessary, or make the values equal to a value in another cell or series of cells.
Tip
Excel makes its calculations based on the standard order of precedence for arithmetic operators—that is, negation, percentage, exponentiation, multiplication and division, and addition and subtraction. If two operators have the same precedence, Excel makes the calculation from left to right. To change the order of calculation, you use parentheses to group portions of the formula.
Try This!
In an empty cell, type = 10+5*30+6/3 and press Enter. Copy the formula to a new cell, and then press the F2 key to activate editing of the cell. Add a pair of parentheses to the formula so that it’s now =(10+5)*30+6/3 and press Enter. Note that adding the parentheses changed the order of the operations and thus the result. Continue adding, moving, or deleting pairs of parentheses in the formula to see the effects on the final result.
Tip
You can mix cell references and numeric values in a cell—for example, a formula might be =C1+C3+10. You can also reference cells in other worksheets or in other workbooks.
Caution
Don’t assume that a formula contains an error just because it uses different operators from those you’re familiar with. Some formulas are logical tests that return a true or false value, while others are used to manipulate text. For example, a formula of =C3=10 would display TRUE if the value in cell C3 was equal to 10, and would display FALSE otherwise.