Excel functions refer to the mathematical features it has. Functions such as maths and trig, to financial and statistical. The average user will likely not make use of a fraction of those available, but there are a few that can be very useful.

Perhaps the best is the sum function. The sum function is addition and can add a range of numbers. It's straightforward enough as well, you just select the cell to display the total, then sum from function list and then the range of values. It can be used with many types of spreadsheets.

Of course, Excel has many other useful functions. The average function is one such that is useful. This returns a mean average, that is to say total value/divided by no of values, e.g. 10/3 will return an average of 3.33. Excel's average function will do this. Simply select it and then the relevant range of cells.

You can also use Excel functions for other averages. The median average is a useful function that can be used for middle averages. Here, Excel will find the middle value within a range of numbers. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 for example, will have three as a mid-value. In Excel, this function is listed as MEDIAN.

The other useful average is that of modal, or mode. The mode will find the most frequent value within a range of cells. Let us say, for example: 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3 then two will be the modal average for this range. The Excel mode function is listed as MODE.

Max and min, are two functions that return the highest and lowest value within a range. Let us say that you have a range of: 2, 44, 5, 7, 9. Here, the max function will return 44 as the maximum value and the min function will return two as the minimum.

Another useful function to make use of is the If function. This function can return a conditional value, check it is met and then return a true or false value appropriately. Sum If, will add values that meet certain criteria.

The count function, allows users to count how many numbers are within a range of cells. Let us say, for example, that there are a total of nine values within a range. Applying the count function will calculate this. The Count-if function applies criteria to the count.

So certainly, Excel has a good number of functions available. The sum, median, mode, if, count, average, max and min functions are amongst some of the more useful available. Try using them in your spreadsheets.

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