I have been using Excel to perform all my stock market record-keeping and stock-tracking activities. I use it to daily get the stock numbers using the external data functionality to know what my daily gains and losses have been. Lately I tried adding another functionality to it and during that I came across a need to use a function that helps create Hyperlinks to web pages. For this I used Hyperlink() function.

But my tool was dynamic, and similarly the hyperlink was also supposed to be dynamic. It was supposed to get me to the Yahoo Finance’s page of the company that I had selected in my tool. So, it means that the hyperlink should change with a change of company in my tool. This is how I did it:

I used the Concatenate and Hyperlink function to achieve this. For the concatenate, I actually used the Ampersand (&) rather than using the concatenate function.

If you have used Yahoo Finance, you would know that the web address naming for a company snapshot on Yahoo Finance is something like this (I am using Indian firms as I check on those only):

Bharti Airtel – http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=BHARTIARTL.BO
Punj Lloyd – http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=PUNJLLOYD.BO

Note the naming convention of the two links. The part “http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=” remains common in the two links. And the end part, is actually the BSE Codes. You can get these codes from the BSE wesbite.

So, I created the formula as (please remove the spaces from the below function, except from “Home Page”) -

= Hyperlink(“http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=” & A1, “Home Page”)

And in the cell A1, I created a dynamic lookup to the code according to the company that I selected. This dynamic lookup would pick up the BSE code from a list and would feed it the to the Hyperlink function to get to the appropriate webpage. Now, whenever I change the company that I am analyzing, I can open up it’s snapshot page without any hassles.

Auto fill is the ability of Excel to identify and fill a series of text or numbers, automatically, in a given range. For example, you want to fill down a row, a series of numbers from 1 to 10. There are 2 ways to do it:

One is that you type these numbers manually yourself. This method is fine, if in this case, as there are only 10 numbers to be manually-punched. But what if the series to be filled was 1 to 1,000? …or 10,000?

The second method to fill the series is making use of Auto Fill. In Auto Fill, you need to fill only starting 2-3 numbers (or text for that matter) and then drag the range down using fill handle. MS Excel will identify the series by itself and will fill the range till where you drag down the range. The below image shows the ‘Fill Handle’.

Examples: Here are a few examples of what type of series can be used:

• The simplest of series is filling a range with numbers that increase by a common number, let us assume by 4. For this, write first 2-3 numbers yourself (e.g. in range A1 to A3). Then select these 3 cells and then hover your mouse over bottom-right corner of the selected range. The moment you hover, the pointer turns to a cross shape. Now, press the mouse button and drag the range to number of cells that you want to be filled automatically, till you reach the number you want
• Alphanumeric Range: Assume that you want to fill a range of cells that has alphanumeric range, in which the last part is numeric and that number increase by a unit with each row down the column. Example – Emp1, Emp2, Emp3,…Empn. For this too, Auto Fill series can be used. Here also you need to manually write first 2-3 entries. Then fill the series by select-drag-n-fill method explained in previous example. A point to note here is that in all alpha-numeric ranges, where auto-fill is used, the string has to end with a number and the series will only work on these numbers (numbers at the end) only
• Other series that Excel already knows and can fill for you are name of months, name of weekdays, etc. You can also create your own list with multiple entries and then later you can simply use first few entries and then drag-n-fill to complete the series/range, etc.

Match function is used to get the relative location of a text or value within a specified array.

Syntax:

= Match (Lookup_value, Lookup_array, Lookup_type)

Lookup_value: This value in the function specifies the value or the text (an item) that is to be looked up in the array (or a range of cells)

Lookup_array: This is where one specifies the range in which the item is to be looked up. This can be a range of cells, a range name, or a reference to a range
Lookup_type: This field determines the limitations to how the value should be looked up in the array This value can be either 1, 0 or -1. In case Match Type is omitted, the default type 1 is taken. Following are the explanation to each of these values.

• If the Match type is 1 the function will search for largest value that is less than or equal to lookup_value
• With the Match type 0 the function gives the exact match of the lookup_value
• MATCH finds the smallest value that is greater than or equal to lookup_value in case the Match type is -1

Examples:

For the examples below, please consider the data as shown in image below:

• Match (“Apple”, A1:A13, 0) – the result will be: 1
• Match (“aPpLe”, A1:A13, 0) – the result will be: 1
  • This example has lookup_value with mixed case alphabets, which is ignored by the Match Function
• Match (B1, A1:A13, 0) – the result will be: 10
  • (for the above example, assume that cell B1 contains Cherry)
• Match(“Cher”, A1:A13, 1) – the result will be 8
  • This function will result in 8 as the list has ‘Cherimoya’ at 9th position, which is greater than the lookup_value (please read the lookup_type section above for more clarity)

Application: Match function is used quite a lot with other Lookup functions, the most common usage being with VLookup. This function is used to make a dynamic reference to the column position from where the Lookup function should pick up the value to be returned.

This post is in continuation to my previous post on Excel Keyboard Shortcut. This time I have chosen shortcuts for ‘Formatting’ commands.

• Activate the Formatting dialog box: The shortcut key for this command is CTRL+1. This command will activate the Formatting dialog box which can then be used for applying any kind of formatting to the selected cells.
• Apply ‘General’ format: The general format is the default formatting applied on the cells. Whenever you open a new workbook, the cells have general formatting. The shortcut key to apply ‘General’ format to selection is – CTRL+SHIFT+~. A general format also means removing other formatting, such as Number, Text, Date formatting. It does not mean to removing borders, etc.
• Apply ‘Number’ format: CTRL+SHIFT+1 applies the number format to the selection of cells. The formatting includes – number format, the thousand separator and 2 decimal points formatting
• Apply ‘Time’ format: To apply a time formatting to selected cells, CTRL+SHIFT+2 is used. This will apply ‘HH:MM AM/PM’ formatting to the selected cells
• Apply ‘Date’ format: The date formatting converts the cell formatting to DD-MMM-YY format. The shortcut key for this formatting is CTRL+SHIFT+3
• ‘Currency’ format: The key combination – CTRL+SHIFT+4 applies the currency format to the selected cells. It applies the ‘$’ sign to numbers and also applies 2 decimal point formatting
• Percentage formatting: To apply ‘%’ sign and the formatting, use the key combination – CTRL+SHIFT+5
• Applying borders: To apply outline border to cells use the CTRL+SHIFT+&. This will apply normal outline border to the selection range

For the border formatting, please note that the given key combination would not apply border to all cells in the range. It will only apply outline to the whole range as such. Please see the image below:

I have been approached several times by my friends, colleagues and every that person, who knows that I write a blog on excel, for coaching them on MS Excel. They’ve asked me to take a session or two with them and make them proficient in this tool.

My question is – Is MS Excel really a rocket science? No! That is for sure (I do not want to discourage Excel tutors and bloggers – I myself write blog on Excel). But my point is – Excel is no rocket science and no one can teach you how to make best use of this tool. One may tell you what functions are there in Excel, how are they written, what is data validation and Blah! Blah! Blah!

No one can tell you how to apply these functions in your situation. It is the Application of these concepts to solve business issues that makes one a power Excel user. And that one can only learn by – 1) Experience and 2) by using one’s own brains.

There is another thing that one must know to become a power user, and this applies to everything, not just Excel. If you really want to master anything (or any tool for that matter), not just know what ‘it can do’, but also know ‘what it cannot do’. Trust me, this really helps.

And lastly, do not just stop visiting Excel Matic. You will for sure learn a lot from us too!!

One should not take shortcuts in life – that is what one learns. But, when it comes to MS Excel, I can assure you, that learning some really productive keyboard shot cuts can be really useful.

Sometime back I had written distributed an eBook on Essential shortcuts for MS Excel which was appreciated by everyone.

Adding to that list, I am listing down a few more essential, not-so-well-known shortcuts.

Here is the list:

• Hide and un-hide a column: In case one wants to hide a column, the usual steps of command would be: Select column, right click on the column header and then click ‘hide’. Instead, one can simply use this keyboard shortcut – select the cells which are in the columns which are to be hidden and press – CTRL+0 (the ‘control’ key and the ‘zero’ button on the numeric keys laid below the functions keys). One can un-hide the columns by selecting the hidden range and then pressing SHIFT button together with the above combination.Summary:
  To hide – CTRL+0
  To unhide – SHIFT+CTRL+0
• Hide and un-hide a row: Similar to hide-unhide the column, one can use keyboard shortcut keys to hide and unhide rows. For this, the key combinations are: To hide – CTRL+9; and to unhide the hidden row – SHIFT+CTRL+9
  
• Copy down: This is one of the actions, that is generally not widely used, but trust me. One can save a lot of time which requires lot of copying and pasting, specially while making big spreadsheets with lots of repeating functions / data. The key combinations CTRL+D copies down the data from the cell immediately above. A point of caution – please note that the keys copies data from the cell immediately above, that means – for example, if cells A3:A5 are hidden, with cells A2 and A6 visible as immediate cells, pressing CTRL+D at cell A6 would not copy data from cell A2. It will still copy data from the cell which is actually preceding it, i.e. cell A5
• Copy to right: Another key combination similar to CTRL+D is CTRL+R. This key combination copies the data to cell on the right. So, in case you want to copy some from the cell immediately on left, you can press CTRL+R at the destination cell. The caution I mentioned in the above case, also applies to this combination

See the below video about how to use CTRL+D to copy down the data:

For the last 2 key combinations, there is another point one should keep in mind before being able to use correctly. In case you want to copy down (or copy right) some data to only a single cell, then the use of these keys is quite straight forward. If I want to copy some data (for example, from cell A1) to multiple cells below it (lets say – from cell A2 to cell A5).

In this case, I will have to select range – A1:A5. Note that when copying down (or copying to right), one has to select the source cell also.

Indirect()

This function is used to return the reference to text reference provided. This function converts the text reference to actual reference and fetches the value available in the address referenced. (It will be much clear when we will take a look at an example)

Syntax:

= Indirect (Text_reference, Reference_format)

Text_reference: This is the text form of cell address or reference from where the value is to be fetched

Reference_format: Reference format can either be TRUE or False. True indicates that text reference is in A1 style and False indicates text reference is in R1C1 format

Examples:

Let us take an example here. In cell A1 write, B1. And, in cell B1 put any value (for example, 10). Now in cell A5 write this function:

= A1

This function will return ‘B1′ as a result as we have referred to the cell A1′s value.

There could be another case – if we want to get the value of cell which is mentioned in A1. In such case we make use of Indirect() function. This function will the reference (the address of the cell from which we need to fetch the value) from the cell specified in the function. Now, change the function in cell A5 to this:

= Indirect (A1)

This function will now return the value stored in the cell B1 (the cell which is mentioned in the cell A1)

These functions are used mostly in the case where the address or the cell to be referred to are dynamically created.

Index()


Index function can be used in 2 forms – Array form and the Reference form. I will take each of these here.


Array form: In the first type, it is used to fetch a value from a table / array by making an intersection point using the row number and the column number. In this form, you can specify only a single array from which the values are to be fetched.


Reference form: This form also works similar to the first one, with the only exception being that in this case, you can mention more than 1 arrays / tables from which the value will be looked up and in the function you also mention which reference (i.e. the table / array) should actually the should be fetched from.




Syntax:


Array form: = Index (Array, Row_number, Column_Number)


Array: This argument is the array from which the value should be picked. The array can be a table or a range of cells with single column or row
Row_number: This argument specifies the row number from which the value will be picked
Column_number: This argument completes the function by providing the column number which will be used to create the intersection with row number to fetch the number




Reference form: = Index (Reference, Row_number, Column_number, Reference_number)


Reference: This argument specifies the ranges / tables from where the the value should be fetched using the index number. In case there are more than 1 references mentioned, this argument itself should be enclosed within the parentheses

• = Index ( (A1:B10, A15:B20), 3, 2, 1) – the result would be C
• = Index ( (A1:B10, A15:B20), 3, 2, 2) – the result would be W

Today I am starting to write about Lookup functions, that include VLookUp(), HLookUp(), InDirect(), etc. Lookup functions are one of the most useful and in-demand functions.

These functions are used in lot of applications, their demand in today’s market is very high, one of which is financial industry. And not just financial research, these functions are very famous in other industries also, at all those places where there is high use of Excel spreadsheets. So, knowledge of these functions and their application will provide you with an edge to clear the interviews and also will make you feel confident in using these functions.

So, I will be writing on one function in every 2 days, so that you guys can get time to catch-up with each function and understand it properly. Also, starting from these functions, going forward I will also talk about the application of each of these functions, together with examples. This will provide you with some live examples of using each of these functions. In case you would like to submit any cases which you think could be suitable examples for these functions, do let me know. I will put them up as sample applications.

To start with, today I have written about Address() function and have also mentioned its application with its explanation.