Articles

Formula errors are useful because they tell you clearly that something is wrong in a worksheet. This guide shows examples of each of the Excel formula errors you might run into and provides information on how to investigate and correct the error. It also explains two methods to quickly find errors in a worksheet or workbook.

If VLOOKUP finds more than one match, will you get the first match or the last match? It's a trick question. It depends :) This article explains this confusing topic in detail, with lots of examples.

Most people never receive proper Excel training and spend years frustrated by the simplest tasks, especially tasks that involve formulas. To use Excel with confidence, you must have a good understanding of formulas and functions. This article introduces the basic concepts you need to know to be proficient with formulas in Excel.

The double negative coerces TRUE or FALSE values to their numeric equivalents, 1 and 0. This is a useful technique in many advanced formulas that work with cell ranges.

Excel contains over 500 functions, with more functions added every year. That is a huge number, so where should you start? This guide provides a walkthrough of over 100 important functions in Excel with many examples and links. Click function names for details and more examples.

Criteria are a key concept in Excel, but building useful criteria for text, numbers, dates, times, etc. is hard because it requires a good understanding of how Excel handles data. This guide will help you build formulas that work the first time with over 50 examples.

Have you entered a formula, but Excel is not showing a result? This can be very confusing, and you might think you've somehow broken your spreadsheet. However, it's likely a simple problem. With a little troubleshooting, you can get things working again.

Excel Tables have a boring (and confusingly generic) name, but they are packed with useful features. This article is a summary of the things you should know about Excel Tables.

INDEX and MATCH is the most popular tool in Excel for performing more advanced lookups. This is because INDEX and MATCH are incredibly flexible – you can do horizontal and vertical lookups, 2-way lookups, left lookups, case-sensitive lookups, and even lookups based on multiple criteria. If you want to improve your Excel skills, INDEX and MATCH should be on your list. See below for many examples.

Number formats are a key feature in Excel. Their key benefit is that they change how numeric values look without actually changing any data. Excel ships with a huge number of different number formats, and you can easily define your own. This guide explains how custom number formats work in detail.

One of the most useful features of data validation is the ability to create a dropdown list that let users select a value from a predefined list. But how can you make one dropdown dynamically respond to another? In other words, how can you make the values in a dropdown list depend on another value in the worksheet? Read on to see how to create dependent dropdown lists in Excel.

Data validation can help control what a user can enter into a cell. You can use data validation to make sure a value is a number, a date, or to present a dropdown menu with predefined choices to a user. This guide provides an overview of the data validation feature, with many examples.