Microsoft Excel is a powerhouse for office tasks—whether you’re managing data, creating reports, or doing calculations. But to truly unlock its potential, you need to master some essential Excel formulas.
Here are 15 of the most useful Excel functions that can save you time and boost your productivity at work:
1. SUM
Adds up numbers in a range.
excelCopyEdit=SUM(A1:A10)
Perfect for calculating totals in financial reports or sales sheets.
2. AVERAGE
Calculates the average (mean) of a range.
excelCopyEdit=AVERAGE(B2:B12)
Helpful for analyzing survey data or performance metrics.
3. IF
Returns one value if a condition is TRUE and another if FALSE.
excelCopyEdit=IF(C2>100,"High","Low")
Great for conditional reporting and evaluations.
4. VLOOKUP
Searches for a value in the first column of a range and returns a corresponding value.
excelCopyEdit=VLOOKUP(101,A2:C10,2,FALSE)
Ideal for looking up employee names by ID or retrieving product prices.
5. HLOOKUP
Similar to VLOOKUP but searches horizontally across rows.
excelCopyEdit=HLOOKUP("Q1",A1:D5,2,FALSE)
6. INDEX
Returns the value of a cell at a specific row and column.
excelCopyEdit=INDEX(A1:C3,2,3)
Used when you want precise control over which data to pull.
7. MATCH
Finds the relative position of a value in a range.
excelCopyEdit=MATCH(500,A1:A10,0)
Often combined with INDEX for advanced lookups.
8. LEN
Returns the number of characters in a string.
excelCopyEdit=LEN(A2)
Useful for text validation or cleaning data.
9. TRIM
Removes extra spaces from text.
excelCopyEdit=TRIM(B2)
Perfect for cleaning up imported data.
10. CONCAT / TEXTJOIN
Joins text from multiple cells.
excelCopyEdit=CONCAT(A1,B1)
=TEXTJOIN(" ",TRUE,A1:C1)
Helps merge names or addresses into single cells.
11. LEFT, RIGHT, MID
Extracts specific characters from text.
excelCopyEdit=LEFT(A1,5)
=RIGHT(A1,3)
=MID(A1,2,4)
12. NOW & TODAY
Returns current date and time.
excelCopyEdit=NOW()
=TODAY()
Good for timestamps, reports, or dynamic dates.
13. COUNT & COUNTA
COUNTcounts numbersCOUNTAcounts non-empty cells
excelCopyEdit=COUNT(A1:A10)
=COUNTA(B1:B10)
14. IFERROR
Returns a value you specify if a formula results in an error.
excelCopyEdit=IFERROR(A1/B1,"Error")
Helps avoid ugly #DIV/0! or #N/A in reports.
15. SUMIF / COUNTIF
Performs conditional sums or counts.
excelCopyEdit=SUMIF(A1:A10,">100")
=COUNTIF(B2:B20,"Completed")
Essential for tracking task statuses or filtering totals.