Excel TEXT functions (string functions)

There exist a great lot of Microsoft Excel functions to manipulate text strings. Here are the most
essential ones:

TEXT function
TEXT(value, format_text) is used to convert a number or a date into a test string in the specified format,
where:
 Value is a numeric value you want to convert to text.
 Format_text is the desired format.

The following formulas demonstrate the Excel TEXT function in action:

=TEXT(A1,"mm/dd/yyyy") - convert a date in cell A1 into a text string in the traditional US date format,
such 9as "01/01/2015" (month/day/year).
=TEXT(A1,"€#,##0.00") - converts a number in A1 into a currency text string such as "€3.00".

=TEXT(C2,"0") - convert number to text using the Excel TEXT function

=TEXT(value, format_text) - convert a numeric value to a text string and display it in the format you
specify.

For example, you can use the following formula to convert a date in cell A1 to a text string in the
traditional US date format (month/day/year):
=TEXT(A1,"mm/dd/yyyy")

CONCATENATE function
CONCATENATE(text1, [text2], …) is designed to join several pieces of text together or combine values
from several cells into a single cell.

An analogues result can be achieved by using the Excel & operator, as demonstrated in the following
screenshot.
TRIM function
TRIM(text) removes leading, trailing spaces as well as excess spaces between words. Where text is
either a text string or reference to the cell containing the text from which you want to remove spaces.

The following screenshot demonstrates an example of usage:

SUBSTITUTE function
SUBSTITUTE(text, old_text, new_text, [instance_num]) replaces one set of characters with another in a
specified cell or a text string. The syntax of the SUBSTITUTE function is as follows:
 Text - the original text string or reference to a cell where you want to substitute certain
characters.
 Old_text - the characters you want to replace.
 New_text - the characters you want to replace the old text with.
 Nth_appearance - an optional parameter that specifies which occurrence of old_text you want
to replace with new_text. If omitted, then every occurrence of the old text will be replaced with
the new text.

For example, the following SUBSTITUTE formula replaces all commas in cell A1 with semicolons:
=SUBSTITUTE(A2, ",", ";")

VALUE function
VALUE(text) - converts a text string to a number.
This function is really helpful when it comes to converting text-formatted values representing the
numbers into numbers that can be used in other Excel formulas and calculations.

EXACT function
EXACT(text1, text2) compares two text strings and returns TRUE if both values are exactly the same,
including case, FALSE otherwise.

For example, if A2 is "apples" and B2 is "Apples", the formula =EXACT(A2, B2) will returns FALSE,
because they are not exact match.
Functions to change text's case (UPPER, LOWER, PROPER)
Microsoft Excel provides 3 text functions to convert between UPPER, lower and Proper case.
UPPER(text) - converts all characters in a specified text string to upper case.
LOWER(text) - changes all uppercase letters in a text string to lowercase.
Proper(text) - capitalizes the first letter of each word and converts all other letters to lowercase (more
precisely, it capitalizes the letters that follow any character other than a letter).

In all three functions, the text argument can be a text string enclosed in quotation marks, a reference to
a cell containing the text or a formula that returns the text.

Extract text characters (LEFT, RIGHT, MID)

If you need a formula to return a certain number of characters from a text string, use one of the
following Excel functions.
LEFT(text, [num_chars]) - returns a specified number of characters from the beginning of a text string.
RIGHT(text,[num_chars]) - returns a specified number of characters from the end of a text string.
MID(text, start_num, num_chars) - returns a specific number of characters from a text string, starting at
any position that you specify.

In these functions, you supply the following arguments:

 Text - a text string or a reference to a cell containing the characters you want to extract.
 Start_num - indicates where to start (i.e. the position of the first character you want to extract).
 Num_chars - the number of characters you want to extract.
Logical functions in Excel
Microsoft Excel provides a handful of logical functions that evaluate a specified condition(s) and return
the corresponding value.

AND, OR, XOR functions

AND(logical1, [logical2], …) - returns TRUE if all of the arguments evaluate to TRUE, FALSE otherwise.
OR(logical1, [logical2], …) - returns TRUE if at least one of the arguments is TRUE.
XOR(logical1, [logical2],…) - returns a logical Exclusive Or of all arguments. This function was introduced
in Excel 2013 and is not available in earlier versions.

NOT function
NOT(logical) - reverses a value of its argument, i.e. if logical evaluates to FALSE, the NOT function
returns TRUE and vice versa.
For instance, both of the following formulas will return FALSE:
=NOT(TRUE)
=NOT(2*2=4)

IF function
The Excel IF function is sometimes called a "conditional function" because it returns a value based on
the condition that you specify. IF's syntax is as follows:
IF(logical_test, [value_if_true], [value_if_false])
An IF formula tests the condition(s) expressed in the logical_test argument and returns one value
(value_if_true) if the condition is met and another value (value_if_false) if the condition is not met.

For example, the formula =IF(A1<>"", "good", "bad") returns "good" if there's any value in cell A1,
"bad" otherwise.

And here's an example of the nested IF formula that "deciphers" the exam score in cell A2:
=IF(A2>80, "Brilliant", IF(A2>50, "Good", IF(A2>30, "Fair", "Poor")))
IFERROR and IFNA functions
Both functions are used to check if a certain formula evaluates to an error, and if it does, the MS Excel
functions return a specified value instead.
IFERROR(value, value_if_error) - checks if the formula or expression evaluates to an error. If it does, the
formula returns the value supplied in the value_if_error argument, otherwise, the result of the formula
is returned. This function handles all possible Excel errors, including VALUE, N/A, NAME, REF, NUM, and
others. It is available in Excel 2007 and higher.
IFNA(value, value_if_na) - introduced in Excel 2013, it works similarly to IFERROR, but handles #N/A
errors only.

The following examples demonstrate the simplest IFERROR formula:

Excel math functions

Excel has a ton of basic and advanced functions to perform mathematical operations, calculate
exponentials, logarithms, factorials and the like. It would take several pages just to publish the functions
list. So, let us discuss only a few basic math functions that may prove useful for solving your daily tasks.
Finding the sum of cells

Four essential Excel functions to add up the values of cells in a specified range follow below.

SUM function
SUM(number1,[number2],…) returns the sum of its arguments. The arguments can be numbers, cells
references or formula-driven numeric values.
For example, the simplest math formula =SUM(A1:A3, 1) adds up the values in cells A1, A2 and A3, and
then adds 1 to the result.

SUMIF and SUMIFS functions (conditional sum)

Both functions add up the cells in a specified range that meet a certain condition. The difference is that
SUMIF can evaluate only a single criteria, while SUMIFS, introduced in Excel 2007, allows for multiple
criteria. Please pay attention that the order of arguments is different in each function:
SUMIF(range, criteria, [sum_range])

SUMIFS(sum_range, criteria_range1, criteria1, [criteria_range2, criteria2], …)

 range / criteria_range - the range of cells to be evaluated by the corresponding criteria.
 criteria - the condition that must be met.
 sum_range - the cells to sum if the condition is met.
The following screenshot gives an idea of how the SUMIF and SUMIFS functions can be used on real-life
data:

SUMPRODUCT function
SUMPRODUCT(array1,array2, …) is one of the few Microsoft Excel functions that handle arrays. It
multiplies the supplied array components and returns the sum of the products.
The essence of the SUMPRODUCT function may be difficult to grasp, and hopefully the following
examples will shed some light on its major uses.

MOD function
MOD(number, divisor) returns the remainder after the number argument is divided by divisor.

Generating random numbers (RAND and RANDBETWEEN)

Microsoft Excel provides 2 functions to generate random numbers. Both are volatile functions, meaning
that a new number is returned every time the worksheet calculate s.
RAND() - returns a random real (decimal) number between 0 and 1.
RANDBETWEEN(bottom, top) - returns a random integer between the bottom and top numbers that
you specify.

Rounding functions
There exist a variety of functions to round off numbers in Excel, and our Excel Rounding Tutorial makes a
good job explaining how to use those functions based on your criteria. Please click on the function's
name to learn its syntax and examples of uses.
 ROUND - round the number to the specified number of digits.
 ROUNDUP - round the number upward to the specified number of digits.
 ROUNDDOWN - round the number downward to the specified number of digits.
 MROUND - rounds the number upward or downward to the specified multiple.
 FLOOR - round the number down to the specified multiple.
 CEILING - round the number up to the specified multiple.
 INT - round the number down to the nearest integer.
 TRUNC - truncate the number to a specified number of decimal places.
 EVEN - round the number up to the nearest even integer.
 ODD - round the number up to the nearest odd integer.
Statistical functions in Excel
Among a variety of highly specific Excel statistical functions, there are a few ones that everyone can
understand and leverage for professional data analysis.
Finding the largest, smallest and average values
MIN(number1, [number2], …) - returns the minimal value from the list of arguments.
MAX(number1, [number2], …) - returns the maximum value from the list of arguments
AVERAGE(number1, [number2], …) - returns the average of the arguments.
SMALL(array, k) - returns the k-th smallest value in the array.
LARGE(array, k) - returns the k-th largest value in the array.

The following screenshot demonstrates the basic statistical functions in action.

Counting cells
Below is a list of Excel functions that let you count the cells containing a certain data type or based on
the condition(s) that you specify.

COUNT(value1, [value2], …) - returns the number of numerical values (numbers and dates) in the list of
arguments.
COUNTA(value1, [value2], …) - returns the number of non-empty cells in the list of arguments. It counts
cells containing any information, including error values and empty text strings ("") returned by other
formulas.
COUNTBLANK(range) - counts the number of empty cells in a specified range. Cells with empty text
strings ("") are also counted as blank cells.
COUNTIF(range, criteria) - counts the number of cells within the range that meet the specified criteria.
COUNTIFS(criteria_range1, criteria1, [criteria_range2, criteria2]…) - counts the number of cells that
meet all of the specified criteria.
The following screenshot demonstrates the counting cells functions in action:

Note. Since dates are stores as numbers in Excel, they are also counted by Excel statistical functions. For
example, the formula =COUNTIF(A2:A9, ">5") counts the date in cell A8 in the screenshot above
because it is stored as 42005 in the internal Excel system.

Excel lookup and reference functions

These MS Excel functions comes in handy when you need to find certain information in a table based on
a value in one column, or return a reference to a certain cell.

VLOOKUP function
The VLOOKUP function looks for a specified value in the first column and pulls the matching data from
the same row in another column. It requires the following arguments:
VLOOKUP (lookup_value, table_array, col_index_num, [range_lookup])
 lookup_value - the value to search for.
 table_array - two or more columns of data.
 col_index_num - the number of the column to pull the data from.
 range_lookup - determines whether to search with exact match (FALSE) or approximate match
(TRUE or omitted).
For example, the formula =VLOOKUP("apples", A2:C10, 3) searches for "apples" in cells A2 through A10
and returns a matching value from column C:

INDEX function
INDEX(array, row_num, [column_num]) - returns a reference to a cell within array based on the row
and column numbers that you specify.
Here is a simple INDEX formula: =INDEX(A1:C10, 3 ,4) that searches in cells A1 through C10 and returns
a value at the intersection of the 3rd row and 4th column, which is cell D3.

MATCH function
MATCH(lookup_value, lookup_array, [match_type]) - searches for lookup_value in lookup_array, and
then returns the relative position of that item in the range.
INDIRECT function
INDIRECT(ref_text, [a1]) - returns a cell or range reference specified by a text string.
Here's an example of the simplest INDIRECT formula to get the general idea:

In real worksheets, INDIRECT formulas are often used to dynamically refer to another sheet or
workbook, to lock a cell reference or to create dependent drop down lists.

OFFSET function
OFFSET(reference, rows, cols, [height], [width]) - returns a reference to a range of cells that is offset
from a starting cell or a range of cells by the specified number of rows and columns.
For example, =OFFSET(A1, 1, 2) returns the value in cell C2 because it's 1 row down and 2 columns to
the left from A1.

TRANSPOSE function
TRANSPOSE(array) - transforms a horizontal range of cells into a vertical range and vice versa, i.e.
converts rows to columns and columns to rows.
The following tutorial provides formula examples and explains the strong and weak points of the
TRANSPOSE function: How to transpose in Excel - convert row to column and vice versa.

HYPERLINK function
HYPERLINK(link_location, [friendly_name]) - Creates a hyperlink to a document stored on a local
network or the Internet.

Excel DATE functions

Creating dates
 DATE - returns the serial number of a specified date.
 DATEVALUE - converts a text string representing the date to date format.
Current date and time
 TODAY - returns the current date.
 NOW - returns the current date and time.
Extracting dates and date components
 DAY - returns the day of the month.
 MONTH - returns the month of a specified date.
 YEAR - returns the year of a specified date.
 EOMONTH - returns the last day of the month.
 WEEKDAY - returns the day of the week.
 WEEKNUM - returns the week number of a date.
Calculating date difference
 DATEDIF - returns the difference between two dates.
  EDATE - returns a date that is the specified number of months before or after the start date.
 YEARFRAC - calculates the fraction of the year between 2 dates.
Calculate workdays
 WORKDAY - calculates a date that is a specified number of working days before or after the start
date.
 WORKDAY.INTL - calculates a date that is a specified number of weekdays before or after the
start date, with custom weekend parameters.
 NETWORKDAYS - returns the number of working days between two dates.
 NETWORKDAYS.INTL - returns the number of workdays between two dates with custom
weekends.

Excel TIME functions

Below follows a list of the major Excel functions to work with times.
TIME(hour, minute, second) - returns a serial number representing the time.
TIMEVALUE(time_text) - converts a time entered in the form of a text string to a serial number
representing the time.
NOW() - returns the serial number corresponding to the current date and time.
HOUR(serial_number) - converts a specified serial number to an hour.
MINUTE(serial_number) - converts a specified serial number to minutes.
SECOND(serial_number) - converts a specified serial number to seconds.

Source:
Most useful Excel functions with formula examples, Svetlana Cheusheva , Ablebits.com
https://www.ablebits.com/office-addins-blog/2015/08/12/useful-excel-functions-examples/