Business Analytics with Excel

Formatting, Conditional Formatting,

and Important Functions
 Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

Discuss how to use custom formatting to format number and date

values

Illustrate the use of conditional formatting in excel

Execute logical operations through logical functions

Find the position and value of required fields using lookup and
reference functions

Classify various statistical functions

 A Day in the Life of a Business Analyst

Your company has the monthly sales data of the last ten years and wants a report on which
salespeople are doing well and highlight that data. As the data analytics professional of the
company, your goal is to consolidate the data required into a single Excel database. This data
is scattered in different sheets for different years and regions.

You are also required to analyze the data statistically and report on different criteria.

In this lesson, you will learn a few concepts to achieve the joining data in different files and to
format the sales based on some conditions.
Formatting
 Formatting and Functions

Formatting helps format the data using different techniques, making the
data easy to read and analyze.

Conditional formatting helps the users to apply formatting to specific cells

so that the data makes more sense.

The formatting technique applies to the worksheet to help the users present
the data efficiently.
 Conditional Formatting

Conditional formatting helps add patterns and trends to the raw information
using different colors, icons, and formulas.
 Functions in Excel

Excel provides many logical, statistical, and mathematical functions such as:

Hlookup If Rank

Vlookup And Not Quartile

 Functions in Excel

The statistical and mathematical functions help the users to:

Manage data and Perform calculations

perform descriptive ranging from basic to
statistical analysis complex scenarios
 Formulas

Excel offers a wide range of important formulas that help perform many common tasks.

Functions of MS Complex combination of

Basic functions
Excel built-in Excel functions
Custom Formatting
Assisted Practice: Perform Custom Formatting - Numbers

Problem statement:

Demonstrate how to use custom formatting to format large numbers.

Assisted Practice Guidelines

Steps to follow:

Step 1: Open the Excel file

Step 2: Set conditional formatting on the number column
Assisted Practice: Perform Custom Formatting - Dates

Problem statement:

Demonstrate how to use custom formatting to format dates.

Assisted Practice Guidelines

Steps to follow:

Step 1: Open the Excel file

Step 2: Apply conditional formatting on the Date column
Conditional Formatting
 Need for Conditional Formatting

A worksheet may contain thousands of rows of data.

It would be difficult to discern patterns and trends by only examining the raw information.
Conditional Formatting

It helps visualize data and makes worksheets easier

to understand.

It quickly highlights important information in a

spreadsheet by using colors, icons, and data bars.

It changes the appearance of one or more cells

when the cell value meets certain conditions.
 Conditional Formatting: Example

If the value is greater than It is easier to discover which

$5000, color the cell yellow. cells have values larger than
$5000 by using this rule.
Assisted Practice: Perform Conditional Formatting
Highlight Duplicate Values

Problem statement:

Demonstrate how to use conditional formatting to highlight duplicate values.

Assisted Practice Guidelines

Steps to follow:

Step 1: Open the Excel file

Step 2: Apply conditional formatting on the Date column
 Conditional Formatting: Presets

Excel provides predefined styles to apply conditional formatting to the data.

 Conditional Formatting: Preset Styles

The following are the predefined Excel styles:

Data Bars Color Scales Icon Sets

These are horizontal bars These change the color of These add a specific icon
added to each cell. each cell based on its to each cell based on its
value. value.
Assisted Practice: Perform Conditional Formatting
Use Icon Set Rules

Problem statement:

Demonstrate how Icon Sets Rules are used.

Assisted Practice Guidelines

Steps to follow:

Step 1: Open the Excel file

Step 2: Apply conditional formatting on the Date column
Assisted Practice: Perform Conditional Formatting
Use Formulas

Problem statement:

Demonstrate how to apply conditional formatting rules with the help of formulas.
Assisted Practice Guidelines

Steps to follow:

Step 1: Open the Excel file

Step 2: Set conditional formatting on Date column
Logical Functions
 Logical Functions: Introduction

Logical functions evaluate a cell or cells for criteria and return a Boolean value as True or False.

If
1 And
2

False 6 Logical
Functions
3 Or

5
True 4
Not
Assisted Practice: How to use Logical Functions

Problem statement:

Demonstrate how to use Logical Functions in Excel.

Assisted Practice Guidelines

Steps to follow:

Step 1: Open the Excel file

Step 2: Add columns with logical functions in Excel
Lookup and Reference Functions
 Need for Lookup and Reference Functions

• To look in a single row or column and find a value from the same position in a second row or
column

• Lookup & Reference functions help you to work with arrays of data and are particularly useful
when you need to cross-reference between different data sets

• They perform tasks such as providing information about a range, returning the location of a
given address or value, or looking up specific values
 Lookup and Reference Functions: Examples

The following are the examples of lookup and reference functions:

HLOOKUP INDEX

VLOOKUP MATCH OFFSET

Lookup Functions

The VLOOKUP function lets the user

search for specific information in the
current worksheet.

If the table is in horizontal format and the

user wants to search for specific
information, then the HLOOKUP function
is used.
Assisted Practice: How to use VLOOKUP Function

Problem statement:

Demonstrate how to use the VLOOKUP Function in Excel.

Assisted Practice Guidelines

Steps to follow:

Step 1: Open the Excel file

Step 2: Use VLOOKUP in Excel
Assisted Practice: How to use HLOOKUP Function

Problem statement:

Demonstrate how to use the HLOOKUP Function in Excel.

Assisted Practice Guidelines

Steps to follow:

Step 1: Open the Excel file

Step 2: Use HLOOKUP in Excel
 Reference Functions: Types

The following are the types of reference functions:

INDEX Function OFFSET Function MATCH Function

It returns a value from a It returns a reference to a It searches for a specified

specific position in a range that is a specific value or item in a single-
specific column in a list. number of rows and dimensional array and
columns from another then returns the relative
range or cell. position of that item in
the array.
Assisted Practice: How to use MATCH Function

Problem statement:

Demonstrate how to use MATCH Function in Excel.

Assisted Practice Guidelines

Steps to follow:

Step 1: Open the Excel file

Step 2: Use MATCH in Excel
Assisted Practice: How to use INDEX and OFFSET Function

Problem statement:

Demonstrate how to use INDEX and OFFSET Function in Excel.

Assisted Practice Guidelines

Steps to follow:

Step 1: Open the Excel file

Step 2: Use INDEX function in Excel
Statistical Functions
 Statistical Functions: Introduction

Statistical functions enable users to perform calculations ranging from basic

functions to more composite distribution and tests.
 Statistical Functions: Types

The following are the types of statistical functions:

SUMIFS

MODE COUNTIFS

Statistical
RANK PERCENTILE
Functions

MEDIAN QUARTILE

STANDARD DEVIATION
 Statistical Functions

SUMIFS Function COUNTIFS Function

It counts the number of cells

It calculates the sum of cells
in a given range when
based on certain criteria.
certain criteria are met.
Assisted Practice: How to use SUMIFS Function

Problem statement:

Demonstrate how to use SUMIFS Function in Excel.

Assisted Practice Guidelines

Steps to follow:

Step 1: Open the Excel file

Step 2: Using SUMIFS function in Excel
Assisted Practice: How to use COUNTIFS Function

Problem statement:

Demonstrate how to use COUNTIFS Function in Excel.

Assisted Practice Guidelines

Steps to follow:

Step 1: Open the Excel file

Step 2: Using COUNTIFS function in Excel
Assisted Practice: How to use PERCENTILE and QUARTILE
Function

Problem statement:

Demonstrate how to use PERCENTILE and QUARTILE Function in Excel.

Assisted Practice Guidelines

Steps to follow:

Step 1: Open the Excel file

Step 2: Using PERCENTILE function in Excel
Step 3: Using QUARTILE function in Excel
 Statistical Functions

STDEV It is a function to calculate sample standard deviations (STDEV). Standard deviation

Function determines how dispersed the data is from the mean.

MEDIAN
It returns the mid-value from the range.
Function

It compares a number to the rest of the numbers in a list in any order and returns
RANK Function
the number's rank concerning other values in the list.
Assisted Practice: How to use STDEV, MEDIAN and RANK
Function

Problem statement:

Demonstrate how to use STDEV, MEDIAN, and RANK Functions in Excel.

Assisted Practice Guidelines

Steps to follow:

Step 1: Open the Excel file

Step 2: Using STDEV function in Excel
Step 3: Using MEDIAN function in Excel
Step 4: Using RANK function in Excel
 Key Takeaways

Custom formatting allows creating custom formats.

Conditional formatting highlights important information in a spreadsheet

by using colors, icons, and data bars.

Logical functions evaluate a cell or cells for certain criteria and return
a Boolean value as True or False.

The VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP functions search for specific

information in the current worksheet.
 Key Takeaways

The Reference Functions INDEX, MATCH, and OFFSET return the

relative position and value in a single-dimensional array.

SUMIFS and COUNTIFS functions perform count and sum based on

one or more criteria.

Excel has built-in statistical functions that help to manage data and
perform descriptive statistical analysis.
Knowledge Check
Knowledge
Check When an Excel function has more than one argument, ____________ separate the
1 arguments in the formula bar.

A. Periods

B. Commas

C. Colons

D. Semicolons
 Knowledge
Check When an Excel function has more than one argument, _________ separate the arguments
1 in the formula bar.

A. Periods

B. Commas

C. Colons

D. Semicolons

The correct answer is B

When an Excel function has more than one argument, commas(,) separate the arguments in the formula bar.
Knowledge
Check In an Excel worksheet, what would result from =AVERAGE(A1:A3) if A1=20, A2=20 and
2 A3=50?

A. 40

B. 30

C. 20

D. 60
 Knowledge
Check In an Excel worksheet, what would result from =AVERAGE(A1:A3) if A1=20, A2=20 and
2 A3=50?

A. 40

B. 30

C. 20

D. 60

The correct answer is B

=AVERAGE(A1:A3) would give a result of 30((20 + 20 + 50) / 3).

Knowledge
Check Which category in the Format Cells dialog box enables you to convert a large number
3 format into short readable format?

A. Custom

B. Date

C. Special

D. Text
 Knowledge
Check Which category in the Format Cells dialog box enables you to convert a large number
3 format into short readable format?

A. Custom

B. Date

C. Special

D. Text

The correct answer is A

The Format Cells dialog box contains category named “Custom” that enables you to convert a large number format
into short readable format.
Knowledge
Check
If we have duplicate value in lookup__range, then VLOOKUP will return___________ .
4

A. The last occurrence

B. Many occurrences

C. The sum of all invoice amounts

D. The first occurrence

 Knowledge
Check
If we have duplicate value in lookup__range, then VLOOKUP will return _________ .
4

A. The last occurrence

B. Many occurrences

C. The sum of all invoice amounts

D. The first occurrence

The correct answer is D

If we have duplicate value in lookup_range, then VLOOKUP function will return the first occurrence.
Knowledge
Check
Which of the following is NOT an argument of the IF function in an Excel worksheet?
5

A. Logical_test

B. Value_if_false

C. Array_range

D. Value_if_true
 Knowledge
Check
Which of the following is NOT an argument of the IF function in an Excel worksheet?
5

A. Logical_test

B. Value_if_false

C. Array_range

D. Value_if_true

The correct answer is C

Array range is NOT an argument of the IF function in an Excel worksheet.

Knowledge
Check Which function is used to make sure that all conditions are true before showing a
6 TRUE answer?

A. =VLOOKUP()

B. =OR()

C. =AND()

D. =IF()
 Knowledge
Check Which function is used to make sure that all conditions are true before showing a
6 TRUE answer?

A. =VLOOKUP()

B. =OR()

C. =AND()

D. =IF()

The correct answer is C

The AND function returns TRUE only if all the conditions are true.
Knowledge
Check Which of the following formulas contains the correct syntax (formula arguments) for
7 the VLOOKUP function?

A. =VLOOKUP(lookupvalue, table_array, col_index_num, range_lookup)

B. =VLOOKUP(table_array, lookup_value, col_index_num, range_lookup)

C. =VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array, col_index_num, value)

D. =VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array, value, range_lookup)

 Knowledge
Check Which of the following formulas contains the correct syntax (formula arguments) for
7 the VLOOKUP function?

A. =VLOOKUP(lookupvalue, table_array, col_index_num, range_lookup)

B. =VLOOKUP(table_array, lookup_value, col_index_num, range_lookup)

C. =VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array, col_index_num, value)

D. =VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array, value, range_lookup)

The correct answer is A

The correct syntax is =VLOOKUP(lookupvalue, table_array, col_index_num, range_lookup) for the VLOOKUP function.