Simple Spreadsheet Tips

Simple tips to save time
And help make better sense of your data

 Managing versions of a spread sheet is a challenge even if only a few
people are updating a sheet.
 It consumes a lot of time and is prone to errors which need checking
and rechecking
 Using google sheets has helped us avoid a lot of issues in a team of
only 3 people
 It can also be connected to 3rd party APIs to send you notifications to
your mail and create mobile apps. More on this in subsequent talks.

 Go to www.google.com/drive or select the drive icon from the menu on
the top right corner of your gmail webpage.
 Drag and drop your excel file into your drive
 Click on the file and on the pop up select open with google sheets



 d
 This will create a new google sheet based of the excel sheet you uploaded. All the
tables and formulas you have entered will be as is, BUT some of the conditional
formatting may not be there.

Extracting information from long text strings, and putting new strings
together

 =AVERAGE(value1, value2,..) - Average of values
 =COUNT(value1, value2,..) – Count Cells with Numeric values
 =COUNTA(value1, value2,..) - Count Cells that are NOT BLANK
 =MIN(value1, value2,..) – Selects lowest value in a range
 =MAX (value1, value2,..) – Selects hightest value in a range
 =SUM(value1, value2,..) – sums values
 =PRODUCT(value1, value2) – will multiply value1 by value2
**NOTE : value1, value2 can be : 1. A number, 2. A cell reference, 3. A range of cells**
 =SUBTOTAL(function code, Range)
 Function codes:“9”-SUM,“6”-PRODCUT,“1”-AVG,“2”-COUNT
 The SUBTOTAL function will ignore other subtotals in a list and only compute pertinent
data – Useful for balance sheets

 =TRIM (text) – Removes additional spaces
 =CLEAN(text) – Removes line breaks and unprintable characters
 =SUBSTITUTE(text, search for, replace with, [occurrence number])
 This will search a string and replace a part of it with something else.
 If you enter an occurance number “n” it will only replace the nth occurance
of the part you are searching for within the text.
**NOTE:“text” ,“search for” can be: 1. A string, e.g.:“this is a string”, 2. A cell reference
e.g.:“C2”**

 =FIND(search for, text, [start position])
 Returns a number based on where what you wanted to find is in the text of
the cell you searched
 =LEN(text)
 Returns a number showing the length of the text in the cell
**NOTE: “text” and “search for” can be: 1. A string, e.g.:“this is a string”, 2. A cell
reference e.g.:“C2”

 =LEFT(text, length) – Returns Text for the length specified
 =RIGHT(text, length) – Returns Text for the length specified
 =MID(text, starting position, length) – Returns Text for the length
specified starting at the position specified
**NOTE: text can be: 1. A string, e.g.:“this is a string”, 2. A cell reference e.g.:“C2”**
 The KEY is to use LEFT(), Right(), and MID() in combination with
FIND() and LEN() to pull only relevant information from a block of text
 USE – Pull only relevant information from a block of text

 For example Cell B4 contains the following string:
 “This is a sample text with extra spaces and some useful information like
the value of the Item 045/NR-GE-1001 given to Ms.Wijegunawardane was
Rs. 5,000,706.00 given on 01/07/18”
 To find out the value of the item automatically from the Cell B4 the
following formula can be used:
 =MID(B4,FIND("Rs.",B4),(FIND(" ",B4, FIND("Rs.",B4)+4)-FIND("Rs.",B4)))

 =CONCATENATE(text1,text2,…)
**NOTE: text can be: 1. A string, e.g.:“this is a string”, 2. A cell reference e.g.:“C2”**
 USE – Dynamic Titles / Headers

Logical functions to catch errors and process information appropriately

 =IF(condition, if true do this, if false do this) – if the condition is true then the formula
after the first comma will be run, other wise the formula after the second comma will
be run
 EG: If B1 had the formula “=IF(A1>80, “Good”, “Bad”)” – This will print Good in B1 if A1 is
greater than 80 otherwise it will print Bad.
 =IF(AND(condition1, condition2,…)
 Used to select item based on multiple conditions, where ALL conditions must be true
 =IF(OR(condition1, condition2,…)
 Used to select item based on multiple conditions, where ONLY ONE conditions must be true
 NESTED IF() statements can be used to compare a cell to a series of conditions
 USE – Sliding scales can be used to determine unit price based on order qty or commission
based on sales performance or grades based on result scores
 EG: to print a grade in B1 based on the score in A1 the following formula can be used:
 “=IF(A1>80, “A”, IF(A1>70, “B”, IF(A1>60, “C”, IF(A1>50, “PASS”, “FAIL”))))”

 =SUMIF(range tested, condition, range to be summed)
 A range is summed if another range passes the given condition
 =SUMIFS(range to be summed, range_tested_1,condition1,
range_tested_2, condition2,….)
 A range is summed if other ranges pass the given conditions
 USE - To sum rows of a table based on particulars of the row (eg. In a
table of sales, sum sales based on the sales rep and month)

 Format cells based on the information they contain
 There are many pre-set conditions that can be selected from such as;
 if the cell contains a specific string
 if the cell is empty
 If it is equal / greater / less than a value
 For custom formatting such as formatting an entire row based on the
value of one cell the below format needs to be used:
 EG: Highlighting Overdue Payments (Assuming Column G contains due dates) :
 “=DAYS(TODAY(),$G2)>90”
 Days(end date, start date) formula is used to get the days between 2 dates
 Today() is used to get todays date
 The above formula can be applied to the entire row 2.
 And then using the format painter it can be applied to all other rows in the table

Search a table and extract specific information from it

 =VLOOKUP(item to look up, table to look up, column to return, [true / false – is the table
ordered])
 Can only return items to the right of the look up column
 Only can return 1st match
 If your table is ordered then enter “true” / “1” otherwise enter “false” / “0”
 USE – search a table and return properties of item eg. Enter item number and return
price

 =INDEX(table to look up, row, col)
 In practice it needs to be used in conjuncture with “=MATCH(item to
look up, col, 0col,0[for exact match])” to identify the correct row
 Eg:“=INDEX(table to look up, MATCH(item to look up,0),col)”
 can be used to return a value on the left or the right of the column
being matched
 Can only return 1st match
 USE – search a table and return properties of item eg. Enter item
number and return price

 Query function only available on google sheets
 Run (SUM, COUNT, AVERAGE) with multiple filters
 Syntax :“=Query(array,“select Col where criteria col(s) full fill
criterias order by/group by colB”)”
 Powerful, simple syntax
 For more on the syntax that can be used in queries please refer the
following :
 https://developers.google.com/chart/interactive/docs/querylanguage
 Use the right side menu to scroll through the syntax features

Ultimate summaries in a few clicks

 Select the table you wish to summarize
 Eg: A table of sales with the following columns; item sold, amount, sales
person, date
 Select ROWs and COLUMN Headers
 EG: ROWs can be items you sell and COLUMNS can be your sales people
 Select what “Values” you want in your table.
 What matters most?
 You can apply sum, count functions on data in your source table to get a
snapshot of the information
 EG: COUNT sale amounts will give you how many of each item each sales person has
sold
 Filter based on conditions in the table
 Filter your “Values based” on the data in other columns
 Eg: Filter values based on date
 More on Pivot Tables
 Excel : https://support.office.com/en-us/article/create-a-pivottable-to-
analyze-worksheet-data-a9a84538-bfe9-40a9-a8e9-f99134456576
 Google Sheets: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/1272900?hl=en

Ultimate summary in a few clicks

 It is a screen showing ONLY relevant information
 This can be customized for each person in your team
 Helps capture entire spreadsheet(s) in one snapshot
 Customizing dashboards for individuals or sections in your
company will help better understand what information is necessary
to keep work moving
 It will help transition into SAS applications and even more
complicated ERP systems

Simple Spreadsheet Tips

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Similar to Simple Spreadsheet Tips (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Simple Spreadsheet Tips