1.3 Your first formulas
You can add up a column, take an average and count things, and understand what you typed.
Before:00. Getting Your FootingUnlocks:02. Excel — Formulas & Functions04. Excel — Cleaning & Power Query
The equals sign turns a cell from a place that holds a value into a place that computes one, and this topic covers the first working set: SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT and their relatives, plus what happens when a formula is copied. It sits here because every later formula topic builds on the mechanics of writing, copying and reading one. The common confusion is between a formula and its result: the cell shows the answer, the formula bar shows the recipe. Reading a formula out loud before trusting it is a habit worth starting now.
Work through these
The equals sign, operators and order of operations
A formula starts with an equals sign, and the order operations are evaluated in is fixed rather than left to right. Brackets are how you overrule it, and most early wrong answers come from not using them.
SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, COUNTA, MIN, MAX
Six functions cover a surprising amount of everyday work: total, average, two ways of counting, smallest and largest. Knowing the difference between the two counting functions matters more than it sounds.
Copying a formula and watching the references move
When a formula is copied, its references move with it, which is either exactly what you wanted or the source of a puzzling result. Watching what happens on a small example is the fastest way to understand it.
Reading a formula out loud to check it
Saying a formula aloud in plain words is the cheapest error check available. If the sentence does not make sense, the formula does not either.
Practice file
- xl-03-formula-drills.xlsx
Thirty short formula tasks with a self-checking answer column that turns green when you are right.
Opens in Excel. Every name, number and address in these files is made up. No account needed to download.
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Links last checked 29 Aug 2026.
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