WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:11.269 --> 00:00:13.900 Excel has a really powerful and convenient feature 00:00:13.900 --> 00:00:16.000 called functions. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:19.320 A function is a pre-defined formula, and it's used 00:00:19.320 --> 00:00:20.320 when a formula 00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:23.720 would be too complicated, or just too long. 00:00:23.720 --> 00:00:27.020 You can access them from the Formulas tab. 00:00:27.020 --> 00:00:29.840 There are hundreds of functions that you can choose from, 00:00:29.840 --> 00:00:33.920 and they are organized by category in the function library. 00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:36.890 For example, the Financial category contains functions that 00:00:36.890 --> 00:00:42.410 deal with things like interest and monthly payments. 00:00:42.410 --> 00:00:44.760 The Text category allows you to convert text to 00:00:44.760 --> 00:00:45.770 lowercase or uppercase, 00:00:45.770 --> 00:00:50.890 replace text, and do other types of text manipulation. 00:00:50.890 --> 00:00:53.239 Date & Time includes functions that return the 00:00:53.239 --> 00:00:57.510 current date, time, day of the week, and others. 00:00:57.510 --> 00:01:00.520 And there are many more functions. 00:01:00.520 --> 00:01:02.730 Much of the time, you'll just need to use common 00:01:02.730 --> 00:01:06.040 functions such as SUM and AVERAGE, and you can 00:01:06.040 --> 00:01:10.700 access these by clicking the AutoSum drop-down arrow. 00:01:10.700 --> 00:01:16.180 In this example, I'd like to add all of these cells. 00:01:16.180 --> 00:01:18.590 If I tried to create a formula for this, I would 00:01:18.590 --> 00:01:20.530 have to add each one individually. 00:01:20.530 --> 00:01:22.770 That would get pretty long, and if I had to add 00:01:22.770 --> 00:01:23.770 hundreds of cells, 00:01:23.770 --> 00:01:26.810 then it would really not be manageable at all. 00:01:26.810 --> 00:01:28.640 So I'm just going to add them all by using a 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:31.369 function. 00:01:31.369 --> 00:01:33.539 Click on the cell where you want the function to 00:01:33.539 --> 00:01:34.539 be, and then 00:01:34.539 --> 00:01:40.619 click on the AutoSum drop-down arrow and select Sum. 00:01:40.619 --> 00:01:43.130 Now this has inserted the function, and it's also 00:01:43.130 --> 00:01:46.450 selected the cells that are being added. 00:01:46.450 --> 00:01:48.420 If it selects the wrong cells, then we can always 00:01:48.420 --> 00:01:54.159 change that by dragging these corner handles. 00:01:54.159 --> 00:01:56.349 But this looks right, so I'll press enter to get 00:01:56.349 --> 00:02:00.549 the result. 00:02:00.549 --> 00:02:02.329 Let's look at this function in a little bit more 00:02:02.329 --> 00:02:04.359 detail. 00:02:04.359 --> 00:02:07.049 Just like formulas, functions always start with 00:02:07.049 --> 00:02:09.069 the equal sign. 00:02:09.069 --> 00:02:12.970 But you might notice that there are no mathematical operators such as addition or 00:02:12.970 --> 00:02:14.540 subtraction, like you would normally see in a 00:02:14.540 --> 00:02:15.810 formula. 00:02:15.810 --> 00:02:19.610 Instead, functions have a specific syntax that 00:02:19.610 --> 00:02:21.780 includes the name of the function, 00:02:21.780 --> 00:02:26.170 followed by one or more arguments in parentheses. 00:02:26.170 --> 00:02:28.300 The arguments tell the function which cells or 00:02:28.300 --> 00:02:31.500 numbers to use to calculate the result. 00:02:31.500 --> 00:02:34.240 In this example, we actually only have one argument, 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:36.960 even though there are two different cell references. 00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:40.020 This is called a range of cells. 00:02:40.020 --> 00:02:45.930 A range of cells is indicated by two cell references separated by a colon. 00:02:45.930 --> 00:02:48.100 In this case, the range consists of all of the 00:02:48.100 --> 00:02:51.930 cells from F6 to F14. 00:02:51.930 --> 00:02:53.981 If you want to use more than one argument, you'll 00:02:53.981 --> 00:02:59.960 need to separate them with commas. 00:02:59.960 --> 00:03:02.800 Let's try a different function now. 00:03:02.800 --> 00:03:05.030 In this example, we have a column for the date 00:03:05.030 --> 00:03:06.910 that each item was ordered, 00:03:06.910 --> 00:03:09.850 and the date that it was received, and I'd like to know how many 00:03:09.850 --> 00:03:12.770 business days it took to receive the item after it 00:03:12.770 --> 00:03:14.280 was ordered. 00:03:14.280 --> 00:03:16.920 First, select the cell where you want the function 00:03:16.920 --> 00:03:18.700 to go. 00:03:18.700 --> 00:03:20.710 If you know which category your function is in, 00:03:20.710 --> 00:03:23.350 you can select it from there, or you can just 00:03:23.350 --> 00:03:32.400 search for the function by clicking the Insert Function command. 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:34.210 Just type in a description of what you're looking 00:03:34.210 --> 00:03:35.210 for. 00:03:35.210 --> 00:03:36.790 I'm looking for a function that can count the 00:03:36.790 --> 00:03:38.540 number of days elapsed, 00:03:38.540 --> 00:03:44.750 so I'll type "count days" and press Enter. 00:03:44.750 --> 00:03:47.220 We've gotten a lot of different results here. 00:03:47.220 --> 00:03:54.350 You can click on a function and read a description of it below. 00:03:54.350 --> 00:03:56.880 NETWORKDAYS returns the number of workdays between 00:03:56.880 --> 00:03:59.130 two dates, and that's what we want. 00:03:59.130 --> 00:04:02.100 So I'll click OK. 00:04:02.100 --> 00:04:04.770 There will be a field for each argument. 00:04:04.770 --> 00:04:11.910 This function has up to three arguments: Start_date, End_date, and Holidays. 00:04:11.910 --> 00:04:13.620 When you click in each field, you can see a 00:04:13.620 --> 00:04:17.380 description of it below. 00:04:17.380 --> 00:04:27.730 If you need more help on a particular function, you can click "Help on this function". 00:04:27.730 --> 00:04:35.000 I'll select G6 for the Start date, H6 for the end 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:36.000 date, and the 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:41.280 Holidays argument is optional, so I'll just leave it blank. 00:04:41.280 --> 00:04:45.000 You'll be able to see the result here. 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:47.639 Click OK, and the function will be added to the 00:04:47.639 --> 00:04:50.229 worksheet. 00:04:50.229 --> 00:04:55.430 Just like with formulas, we can drag the fill handle to copy it. 00:04:55.430 --> 00:04:57.270 And now we can see how long it took each of these 00:04:57.270 --> 00:05:01.090 items to arrive. 00:05:01.090 --> 00:05:03.409 If you've never used functions before, the syntax 00:05:03.409 --> 00:05:06.020 may seem a little strange at first, 00:05:06.020 --> 00:05:08.550 but with some practice you'll start to get the hang of it, 00:05:08.550 --> 00:05:34.719 and over time you'll probably find your favorite functions that you'll use over and over again.