Lab2.

md 1/18/2023

CSC 105 Lab 2: Microsoft Excel

Lab 2 Topics
Absolute v. relative referencing
Referencing between sheets
Functions
Goal
The goal of today's lab is to build on the time tracking exercise you started last lab. In this lab we will add
sheets to allow you to manage clients and projects independently of the number of hours worked.
Admin Details
Do not save your work on the hard drive of the lab computers, it may be erased when you log out!
Instead:
Save your work to the H:/ drive, OR
Save your work to some Internet service (e.g. Email, Google Drive, Dropbox etc.).
Concepts
The following discusses the key concepts required to complete the exercise for this lab. If you are familiar
with these concepts feel free to skip to the exercise.
Relative v. Absolute Referencing
Cells may be referenced in an equation in another cell via two methods:
Relative referencing
Absolute referencing
Using a relative references allows the current cell to reference a cell that is a fixed distance away, e.g. 1
column over and 2 columns down. When the formula in that cell is copied to another cell the references are
then taken with respect to the new cell. Consider the following example which shows a relative reference
and it being copied to another cell:

Notice that in both cases the reference is down two cells and one to the right.
Absolute references do not adjust when the cell is copied, they always reference the same cell in the
workbook. The dollar sign notation is use to designate absolute references, for example $B$2.
Extra documentation on absolute and relative references can be found here.
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Referencing Between Sheets

An Excel workbook may contain many sheets. Sheets may contain references to other sheets. Referencing
between sheets uses the ! notation, for example if a sheet was named "test" then the cell A5 can be
referenced via: test!$A$5.
Functions
Excel provides many built in functions to allow for automatic computation. Excel functions are conceptually
similar to functions from mathematics, like $f(x)$. A function may be part of an equation and usually takes
as arguments one more cells or a range of cells.
See below for examples of the SUM, SUMIF, and VLOOKUP functions.
SUM Function
The SUM function allows you to compute the sum of all of the inputs. The function takes as an argument a
sequence of cell or range references and returns the computed value. Consider two examples of the SUM
function.
Using SUM on a range:

Using SUM on a sequence of cells:

SUMIF Function
The SUMIF function only includes values in the sum if some criteria is met. The function takes three
arguments:
The range to compare against.
The condition to evaluate.
The range to actually sum values from.
In the following example only values in column B with an "a" in column A are considered in the sum.

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Extra documentation for the SUMIF function can be found here.

VLOOKUP Function
The VLOOKUP function allows you to find one value based on the value of another. The function takes at
minimum three arguments and at maximum four:
The value to look up.
The range to look in.
The column number of the range to return (starting with 1 being the leftmost column in the range).
Either TRUE if data range is continuous or FALSE if data range is discrete.
Consider this example where the character is used to look up a number.

Extra documentation and a video tutorial for the VLOOKUP function can be found here.
IF Function
The IF function allows you to make a binary decision (two outcomes) based on the value in another cell.
The function takes three arguments:
A conditional expression (can be true or false).
A value for if the condition is true.
A value for if the condition is false.
Consider the example below where the numerical value in column A was used to determine the value that
gets placed in column B.
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Extra documentation for the `IF` function can be found [here](https://support.office.com/en-us/article/IF-

function-69aed7c9-4e8a-4755-a9bc-aa8bbff73be2).
Exercise
The following describes steps to guide you through the exercise to improve upon your original hour tracking
spreadsheet. Begin by opening the Excel workbook you created in the last lab.
1) Create Client Sheet
Create a sheet to track clients. Name the sheet client. The sheet should look similar to:

Every client should have a unique Client Id. Recall from lab 1 that your workbook should have minimum 4
clients.
Note: These are both coloured blue to indicate they are input fields.
2) Create Project Sheet
Create a sheet to track projects and relate them to clients (in the client sheet). Name the sheet
project.

2.1) Headers and Data

Create the following headers:
Project id (input)
Project name (input)
Client id (input)
Client name (auto populated)
Rate (input)
Hours estimated (input)
Hours total (calculated)
% Complete (calculated based on hours total / hours estimated)
In the above list, items marked (input) are to be manually input and the auto-populated items are filled using
formulas. Here is some sample data, your sheet may look something like:
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Recall from lab 01 that your workbook should have minimum 4 projects. Enter your data into the input
cells. Do not enter anything into the auto-populated cells yet. They will be filled in the later steps. Once you
have entered the input data, proceed to the next steps.
2.2) Link Projects to Clients
Use the VLOOKUP function to have the Client Name field auto populate based on the Client Id that is
entered. The formula will look into the client sheet and based on the cliend ID entered in the project sheet, it
will populate the correct client name in the project sheet. For example, given the sample data provided
above, if cell C2 was set to 2 then cell D2 would update to Beta Client.
2.3) Calculated Percent Complete
Create a formula to calculate the percent complete for each project. Use an IF function to make sure only
valid division occurs (cannot divide by 0). For example:
=IF( AND( F2>0, ISNUMBER(F2) ), G2/F2, "No Estimate" )

Use the AND and ISNUMBER functions in the IF.

3) Update Hours Sheet
3.1) Add Columns
Use the hours sheet you created in the previous lab and add columns so that it looks something like:

Rename this sheet to hours.

Erase the data in the Project Name, Client ID, Client Name and Rate columns. This data will be filled by
linking to the project and client sheets using formulas.
3.2) Link Hours and Project Sheets
Use VLOOKUP to link together the hours and project sheets based on the Project id column. Use VLOOKUP
to automatically generate:
Project name (based on project ID)
Client Id (based on project name)
Rate (based on project name)
3.3) Link Hours and Client Sheets
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Use VLOOKUP to automatically populate the Client name in the hours sheet based on the value of the Client
id (that was populated in step 3.2).
3.4) Compute Amount
If not already set up in the previous lab, use a formula to calculate the total amount due, based on the
number of hours and the rate.
4.0) Calculate Hours For Each Project
In the project sheet, use the SUMIF function to calculate the number of hours for each project. Use the
Project id as the condition for the SUMIF. For example, based on the sheets presented above cell G2 in the
project sheet will have the following formula:

=SUMIF(hours!$C:$C,A2,hours!$B:$B)

5.0) (Extra) Detect Invalid Client or Project Ids

Use IF and VLOOKUP functions to only populate fields if the client or project id numbers are valid. If the ids
are invalid then display an error message.
Deliverable
Submit an excel file named lab02.xlsx in brightspace in the Lab 02 section under "Assignments/ Labs".
Submission file must be named exactly lab02.xlsx. Submitted files that are incorrectly named will be given
zero marks.
By the end of the lab show the instructor three completed Excel sheets with appropriate sample data, the
results should be similar to the image below. Note these are just samples and do not meet the minimum
rows of data required. Your work must meet these requirements.
Sheet Clients:

Sheet Projects:

Sheet Hours:

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Note: grey columns are filled automatically, blue columns require user input.
Your Excel sheet should meet the following criteria, future lab exercises will depend on this deliverable:
The Clients sheet should have:
Client Id (a number that is unique for every client)
Client Name
The Projects sheet should have:
Project Id (a number that is unique for each project, input)
Project Name (input)
Client Id (matches an Id from the Clients sheet)
Client Name (based on client ID, auto populated using VLOOKUP)
Rate ($/hour, input)
Hours Estimated (how long you think the project will take, input).
Hours Total (the number of hours tracked for this project so far, calulated using formula).
Percent Complete (Total Hours / Estimated Hours)
The Hours sheet should have:
. Date (yyyy-mm-dd or yyyy/mm/dd or dd/mm/yyyy, input).
. Number of hours (two decimal places, input)
. The project ID (input)
. A project name (based on project ID, auto populated using VLOOKUP)
. A client ID (based on project name, auto populated using VLOOKUP)
. A client name (based on client ID, auto populated using VLOOKUP)
. The rate (based on project ID, auto populated using VLOOKUP)
. Total amount due (calculated)
. Description
If calculating the "Percent Complete" would result in division by zero, display an error message.
If an Id (client or project) is entered that does not correspond to a client or project in the respective
sheet display an error message.

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