Excel, Formula,

Formatting, VBA
ME 325
Spring, 2007
 Overview
• Formulas and Functions

• Formatting

• Printing

• Macros/VBA
 Excel Formula
• A formula consist of one or many
expressions, such as cells arithmetic
and built in or user defined functions
• In Excel, formulas always begin with an
equal sign (=).

• Ex. =A1+2*B6+Sum(C2:C10)
 Excel Functions
• Excel supplies more than 350 functions
organized into 10 categories:
– Database, Date and Time, Engineering, Financial,
Information, Logical, Lookup, Math, Text and Data,
and Statistical functions
• You can use the Insert Function button on the
Formula bar to select from a list of functions.
• A series of dialog boxes will assist you in
filling in the arguments of the function and
this process also enforces the use of proper
syntax.
 Relative Reference
• A relative reference is a cell reference
that shifts when you copy it to a new
location on a worksheet.
• A relative reference changes in relation
to the change of location.
• If you copy a formula to a cell three
rows down and five columns to the
right, a relative reference to cell B5 in
the source cell would become G8 in the
destination cell.
 Absolute Reference
• An absolute reference is a cell
reference that does not change when
you copy the formula to a new location.
• To create an absolute reference, you
preface the column and/or row
designations with a dollar sign ($).
• For example, the absolute reference for
B5 would be $B$5.
• This cell reference would stay the same
no matter where you copied the
 Insert Function Wizard
• To get help from Excel to insert a
function, first click the cell in which you
wish to insert the function.

• Click the Insert then Function menu

item. This action will open the Insert
Function dialog box.
Insert Function Dialog
 Insert Function tips
• In the Insert Function dialog box you can
type in a description of what you would like
to do in the Search for a function text box
and then click the Go button, and Excel will
come up with some suggestions for you.
• You may also select a category from the
drop-down box, or choose All, which will list
every function in Excel alphabetically.
• Once you make your selection and click the
OK button, another dialog box shows you all
the arguments for the function.
– The arguments shown in boldfaced type are
required
– While the cursor is in an argument's text box, you
can either enter a value or click a cell and that
cell will appear in the text box, saving you the
 Ex. Average Function
• The average function is necessary to
calculate the average of a range of
cells.
• Like any other formula, the average
function may be copied across cells.
 Logical functions
• A function that determines whether a condition is
true or false is called a logical function.
• Excel supports several logical functions such as AND,
FALSE, IF, NOT, OR and TRUE.
• A very common function is the IF function, which
uses a logical test to determine whether an
expression is true or false, and then returns one
value if true or another value if false.
• The logical test is constructed using a comparison
operator that compares two expressions to
determine if they are equal, not equal, if one is
greater than the other, and so forth.
– The comparison operators are =, >, >=, <, <=, and <>
• You can also make comparisons with text strings.
You must enclose text strings within quotation
marks.
 IF Function
• The arguments for the IF function are:
– IF(logical_test,value_if_true,value_if_fals
e)
– For example, the function
=IF(A1=10,20,30) tests whether the
value in cell A1 is equal to 10
– If it is, the function returns the value 20,
otherwise the function returns the value
30
– Cell A1 could be empty or contain
anything else besides the value 10 and
the logical test would be false;
Formatting
 Formatting Cells
• Formatting is the process of
changing the appearance of your
workbook.

• The formatting toolbar is the fastest

way to format your worksheet.

• If you select a cell or range, click

Format on the menu bar or right
click and select format cells, the
The Format Cells dialog box
Alignment Tab
Patterns Tab
 Conditional Formatting
• There are times when you will want data to
have a different appearance if it meets some
criteria.
– For example, you might want data to appear in
red, if the data is more than six months old
– Or, you might want a value to be black if it is
positive and red if it is negative
• This kind of formatting is called conditional
formatting.
• You specify the condition under which you
want the formatting to take place and what
the formatting should be.
Conditional Formatting
Dialog
 Print Area
• By default, Excel prints all parts of the active
worksheet that contain text, formulas, or
values.
• You can define a print area that contains only
the content that you want to print.
• To define a print area, select the range you
want to print, click File on the menu bar,
point to Print Area, and then click Set Print
Area.
• You can also specify different sections of
your worksheet to print on separate pages.
– Insert a page break by clicking on a cell, clicking
Page Setup dialog box
The Header dialog box
 VBA
Visual Basic for Application
Visual Basic for Applications
• VBA is a version of Visual Basic (VB)
available in most Microsoft (MS) Office
applications

• VBA is used to develop procedures,

known as Macros, that can be run
within the application itself.

• VBA have the necessary elements to

programmatically automate your
 Macros
• Excel has a build-in macro recorder that
translates your actions into VBA macro
commands. 
• After you recorded the macro, you will be
able to see the layout and syntax. 
• Before you record or write a macro, plan the
steps and commands you want the macro to
perform. 
• Every actions that you take during the
recording of the macro will be recorded -
including the correction that you made.
• You can use the generated VBA code in your
custom functions.
 VBA Loops
• A loop is an expression used to repeat
an action. Microsoft Visual Basic
presents many variations of the loops
and they combine the Do and the Loop
keywords.

• Loops can be constructed many

different ways to suit different
circumstances. Often the same result
can be obtained in different ways to
suit your personal preferences. These
exercises demonstrate a selection of
 Do While … Loop
Do While Condition    
Statement(s)
Loop

This expression examines the Condition. If

the condition is true, then it executes the
Statement or statements. After executing
the statement(s), it goes back to examine
the Condition. AS LONG AS the Condition is
true, the Statement will be executed and
the Condition will be tested again.
 Do...Loop While
Do
Statement(s)
Loop While Condition

In this case, the Statement or

Statements will be executed first. Then
the Condition will be tested.
 The Do Until ... Loop
Do Until Condition
    Statement(s)
Loop

• This loop will first examine the

Condition, instead of examining
whether the Condition is true, it will
test whether the Condition is false.
 For...To...Next Loop
For Counter = Start To End
  Statement(s)
Next

• The expression begins counting at the Start

point. Then it examines whether the current
value is smaller than End. If so, it then
executes the Statement(s). Next, it
increments the value of Counter by 1 and
examines the condition again. This process
goes on until the value of Counter becomes
equal to the End value. Once this condition is
reached, the looping stops. 
Stepping the Counting Loop
For Counter = Start To End Step
Increment
  Statement(s)
Next Counter

Same as the For loop, the next counter is

incremented/decremented by the
Increment value
 Do … Loop Until, Example
Sub FillData(startRow,nRows)
Dim x as Double
Dim y as Double
Dim row as Integer

row=startRow

Do
x=Cells(row,”A”).Value
y=Exp(x)*Sin(2*x)-3.25
Cells(row,”B”).Value=y
row=row+1
 Loop Until row >(startRow+nRows)
 For … Next Loop
Sub FillData(startRow,nRows)
Dim x as Double
Dim y as Double

For row=startRow to
(startRow+nRows)
x=Cells(row,”A”).Value
y=Exp(x)*Sin(2*x)-3.25
Cells(row,”B”).Value=y
 The If...Then...ElseIf
Statement
If Condition1 is True Then
Statement1
ElseIf Condition2 is True Then
Statement2
ElseIf Conditionk is True Then
Statementk
End If
 If Then …
Function MyFunction(x)
retVal=“N/A”
If x <10 Then
retVal=“Less Than 10”
ElseIf x<20
retVal=“10 to 20”
Else
retVal=“More Than 20”
End If
MyFunction=retVal
End Function
 The Select Case Statement
Select Case Expression
Case Expression1
Statement1
Case Expression2
Statement2
Case Expressionk
Statementk
Case Else
Default statement
End Select

The Expression will be examined and evaluated once. Then

Microsoft Visual Basic will compare the result of this
examination with the Expression of each case. Once it finds
one that matches, it would execute the corresponding
Statement.