The 10 Most Important Excel Formulas and functions - Made Easy! (2024)

Looking to start analyzing your first dataset in Microsoft Excel? We’ve prepared the top 10 Excel formulas and functions you will need in your career as a data analyst! With them, you'll be able to do many of the essential data analysis tasks such as data cleaning, grouping, and sorting—laying the essential base for your career!

Tom Gadsby, our own senior data scientist, will guide you through the selection, explain why each function is so important, and show them in use on a real dataset!

Already using Excel? Comment your favorite use cases down below!

Here are the functions we’ll cover:

(00:00) An introduction to essential Excel functions
(00:24) The Dataset
(00:52) Creating an "IF" Function in Excel
(02:27) What is a "UNIQUE" Function?
(03:38) How to create an "AVERAGEIF" statement
(06:25) An introduction to the "CONCATENATE" Function
(08:29) An explanation of the "ISBLANK" Function
(12:28) Get started with "LEFT / MID / RIGHT" Functions
(13:36) An introduction to the "LEN" Function
(14:29) How to use the "VLOOKUP" Function
(16:39) How to use the "SORT" Function
(17:37) What is the "FILTER" Function
(18:57) Outro

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Top 10 Excel Functions Every Data Analyst Needs in 2022!

[careerfoundry]

Which functions of this list have you used already? Have we missed any essential ones? Let us know! ⌨

[astronautas]

I watched so many different tutorial videos, however this one amongst the best. You are explaining in a clear and simple way, so huge thank you!

[stri]

* The "To_hot" column can also be fixed with IFS (ISBLANK(H2), "MISSING DATA!!", H2>=76, "Too Hot", H2<76, "Ok to work") and it's easier to read than nesting IF.

* For the text formulas i would add as a must the 'SEARCH/FIND" for nesting to extract text by searching a pattern/character.

* Also Xlook-up it's a must today because even google sheets has been updated to support it (index and match is you use an older version of excel)

Great videos about data!

[michaelliu]

I've been watching your vids mate and I am nicknaming you 'The Great Gadsby'.

[markslima]

Thanks for the informative tips. Honestly, I didn't expect to get a Microsoft Excel instructional video from Moriarty, but here we are.

[violetheise]

For some reason there are just some formulas I have a hard time conceptualizing. I had to listen to the nested ISBLANK a few times to get it. Thanks for being clear about what chunk of info serves which purpose in the overall function/formula.

[priscaoitomen]

Am so so new to Data Analysis I need guidance

[extraincomesuz]

I use Google Sheets but it's good to see how you do it in Excel ...thanks for a great short tutorial! Is there a conditional function in Excel that could color the cell's background red for too hot?

[kmarialovesnature]

Hi this was a useful video. Is there a way to find the last digits in a string like the zip code but it varies in number. It could be 3, 5 or 6 digits for example and comes after symbol _ ? Thanks

[darshanmajithia]

What is difference between using "Concatenate" and "&" function. as both returns to same value right ?

[afreenanita]

It would be great if you could share the data you have used in the video. Please make a video on pivot table

[abigailgarner]

Very informative video, thanks! I am starting out as a data analyst and it has been hugely helpful to get familiar with these function early on.
I would like to get some advice, in South Africa our identity numbers start with our data of birth in year, month and date in short format. If I use the left function to extract those 6 digits from the identity numbers, is there a function I can use to convert the data back into a date format?

[puduhari]

If someone is still in high school is it good to study computer science degree or a data science degree. This is for someone in the USA. If high pay and the longevity of the profession are the critical factors to consider, what’s your recommendation and why.

[saiir]

If I wanted to find out how many store 1s 2s etc were in the dataset what function would I use?

[iftakharulislamrefat]

please provide the datafile on which you worked with

[charleyh.]

The temp is given in Celsius, so why not just calculate the Fahrenheit with a formula? or use C?

[volodiamalachovskiy]

Hello. The dataset you use in the video and the one you give a link to are different and that makes it difficult to replicate everything you are doing, 🙄🙄🙄

[urm]

You look like Abel Gideon from the Hannibal TV series

[Idrizly]

why didn't you give us the same data you are using in the video, it is hard to follow along with the original data downloaded from kaggle. Thanks though.

[ivanxdxd]

no self-respecting data analyst would ever use excel like this. You would use PowerQuery and M language if you have to use Excel.