Universal formulas for any given row

[lamontd7]

Hello, I am new to Excel and I need help with creating formulas. I am
trying to create a few formulas that will perform simple mathematical
operations on data contained in any given row of the spreadsheet. I
think I have figured out how to create a formula if I specify exactly
which cells I want to perform mathematical operations on (i.e.,
entering "=A2+B2" into cell C2), but what I really need is to create
universal formulas that, for any given row, will sum the values of
column A and column B of that same row (i.e, cell CX=AX+BX, where X
could be any given row). For Row 5, for example, the formula would be
C5=A5+B5, but since entering a new formula into each cell one by one
wouldn't save me any time compared to just calculating the sums
manually, I am wondering if/how I can create a general formula that
will leave the row undefined and just perform mathematical operations
on two or more columns which I specify, for any given row in the
spreadsheet. In other words, I want to associate with column C a
formula that, for any given row, will sum the values in columns A and B
of that same row. Can anyone tell me how to do that?

Thank you for any help you can give me.

 

[Anne Troy]

It's very simple, Lamont. You only need to learn about the Fill Handle. Type
your =A2+B2 and then use the fill handle. See this article for a
demonstration. It's incredibly simple.
http://www.officearticles.com/excel/best_tips_for_using_microsoft_excel.htm
For a beginner Excel user, you may want to take my tutorial. It will teach
you many time-saving tricks in Excel very quickly, and there's even a sample
data file for you to work with.
http://www.officearticles.com/tutorials/an_extreme_tutorial_in_microsoft_excel.htm
*******************
~Anne Troy

www.OfficeArticles.com

 

[David McRitchie]

Hi Lamont,

Take a look at use of the fill handle
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/fillhand.htm
the rows adjust as you fill down, the columns adjust as you fill across.
If you don't want the adjustment use $ in front of column $A1 to
prevent the column from adjusting as you fill across, or a $ in front
of the row number as in A$1 to prevent the row from adjusting
as you fill down with the fill handle.

You can do what you indicate for addition though it isn't used much
D2: =A:A +B:B +C:C
normall one would use
D2: =SUM(A2:C2) or D2: =A2+B2+C2

For a total you can use
D20: =SUM(D$219)
but you can't insert a row above that and be in the total so, better to use
D20: =SUM(D$2:OFFSET(D20,-1,0))
which is D20 offset back one row, and no adjustment to column

 

[Debra Dalgleish]

David McRitchie has a list of Excel online tutorials that might help you
get started:

http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm#tutorials

For example, this one shows you how to fill a formula down the worksheet:

http://www.fgcu.edu/support/office2000/excel/sorting.html

 

[lamontd7]

Great, thank you all for your help.