Enter A Formula

Download starting Sheet

We've entered some dates in our Expense tracker, and now we need to enter a formula that will tell us the month and the year of those dates so we can use this information in the summary of our expenses.

Steps:

1. Select cell F2
2. Type: =YEAR(A2)
3. Press ENTER
4. Select cell G2
5. Type: =MONTH(A2)
6. Press ENTER

You have now entered 2 formulae that return the year and month of the date in column A.

Things to note about Formulae

• A formula is something that you give an input, it does a calculation, and returns the answer.
• A Formula has at least one dependent cell.
• If this cell changes, the formula will recalculate and the value returned may change.
• If you click on the cell containing the formula and press F2, you will see the dependent cell(s) highlighted

• You can change the inputs to the formula by dragging the highlighted boxes around.
  • Make the input range bigger by dragging the corner
  • Change the input cell by dragging the edge
• You can combine many formulae together to calculate what you need 

Your sheet should now look like this

Next Lesson:  Teach Yourself Excel Lesson 14 - Copy A Formula

Training Video on how to Enter A Formula in Excel: