Top 10 Most Used Excel Formulas (With Real-Life Examples)
You don’t need to memorize hundreds of formulas. Just these ten will make you look like an Excel pro.
🎯 Sticky Summary
- Real-life scenarios for each formula
- Step-by-step explanations
- Practical examples you can use today
- Pro tips to avoid common mistakes
- Why each formula matters in your workflow
1. SUM
🎯 Scenario You’re managing a small business and need to total your monthly sales.
⚙️ How It Works The SUM formula adds up numbers in a range. It’s the bread and butter of Excel.
💡 Example 'SUM(A2:A13)' will instantly give you the total sales for the year.
🔍 Pro Tip You can add non-adjacent cells too: 'SUM(A2:A13, C2:C13)'.
🧠 Why It Matters Instead of adding numbers one by one, SUM does it in a flash — and never makes a typo.
2. AVERAGE
🎯 Scenario You’re a teacher calculating the class average after a tough exam.
⚙️ How It Works AVERAGE finds the mean of a set of numbers.
💡 Example 'AVERAGE(B2:B31)' gives you the average score for your students.
🔍 Pro Tip Use 'AVERAGEIF' to find the average of only those who passed: 'AVERAGEIF(B2:B31, ">=50")'.
🧠 Why It Matters AVERAGE helps you see the big picture, not just the outliers.
3. COUNT
🎯 Scenario You’re tracking inventory and want to know how many products you actually have in stock.
⚙️ How It Works COUNT counts the number of cells with numbers.
💡 Example 'COUNT(C2:C100)' tells you how many products have a quantity entered.
🔍 Pro Tip Use 'COUNTA' to count all non-empty cells, including text.
🧠 Why It Matters It’s the fastest way to check if your data is complete.
4. IF
🎯 Scenario You want to automatically flag overdue invoices.
⚙️ How It Works IF returns one value if a condition is true, and another if it’s false.
💡 Example 'IF(D2>30, "Overdue", "On Time")' will label invoices as overdue if they’re more than 30 days old.
🔍 Pro Tip Nest IFs for more complex logic, or use 'IFS' for multiple conditions.
🧠 Why It Matters IF brings logic to your sheets, so you don’t have to check everything manually.
5. VLOOKUP
🎯 Scenario You have a list of employee names and want to pull their department from another table.
⚙️ How It Works VLOOKUP searches for a value in the first column and returns a value in the same row from another column.
💡 Example 'VLOOKUP("John Doe", A2:C100, 3, FALSE)' finds John Doe’s department.
🔍 Pro Tip For more flexibility, use 'XLOOKUP' or combine 'INDEX' and 'MATCH'.
🧠 Why It Matters VLOOKUP saves you from scrolling and searching manually — it’s a must for big data.
6. INDEX & MATCH
🎯 Scenario You want to find the price of a product, but the columns aren’t in a fixed order.
⚙️ How It Works 'INDEX' returns the value of a cell in a specific row and column. 'MATCH' finds the position of a value in a range.
💡 Example 'INDEX(B2:B100, MATCH("Product X", A2:A100, 0))' gives you the price of Product X, no matter where it is.
🔍 Pro Tip This combo is more flexible and powerful than VLOOKUP, especially when your data changes.
🧠 Why It Matters It adapts to your data, not the other way around.
7. MIN & MAX
🎯 Scenario You’re analyzing temperature data and want to know the highest and lowest days.
⚙️ How It Works MIN finds the smallest value, MAX finds the largest.
💡 Example 'MIN(D2:D366)' and 'MAX(D2:D366)' show you the coldest and hottest days of the year.
🔍 Pro Tip Use conditional formatting to highlight these values automatically.
🧠 Why It Matters Instantly spot trends, outliers, and records.
8. SUMIF & COUNTIF
🎯 Scenario You want to know how many sales were above $100, and what their total was.
⚙️ How It Works 'SUMIF' adds values that meet a condition. 'COUNTIF' counts them.
💡 Example 'SUMIF(E2:E100, ">100")' and 'COUNTIF(E2:E100, ">100")'.
🔍 Pro Tip Use 'SUMIFS' and 'COUNTIFS' for multiple criteria.
🧠 Why It Matters These formulas let you analyze data by category, threshold, or any rule you need.
9. TEXT
🎯 Scenario You want to display dates as "Monday, January 1, 2025" instead of "1/1/2025".
⚙️ How It Works TEXT converts numbers to text in a specified format.
💡 Example 'TEXT(A2, "dddd, mmmm d, yyyy")' turns 1/1/2025 into "Monday, January 1, 2025".
🔍 Pro Tip Use TEXT to format currency, percentages, and more.
🧠 Why It Matters Well-formatted data is easier to read, present, and understand.
10. CONCATENATE (&)
🎯 Scenario You want to combine first and last names into a full name.
⚙️ How It Works CONCATENATE (or just '&') joins text from multiple cells.
💡 Example 'A2 & " " & B2' or 'CONCATENATE(A2, " ", B2)' gives you "John Smith".
🔍 Pro Tip Use with TEXT to create custom labels, IDs, or messages.
🧠 Why It Matters It’s the secret to building dynamic, personalized spreadsheets.
Final Thoughts
Want to go from beginner to pro faster? Bookmark this guide. Better yet, use it next time you're staring at a spreadsheet not knowing what to do.
Keep exploring, keep experimenting, and don’t be afraid to combine formulas in new ways.
If you found this guide helpful, share it with a friend or colleague. And remember: in the world of data, Excel is your superpower.