Your First Formula
Your task: In C2, add the Saturday and Sunday ticket sales with a formula.
Full instructions, scenario and goal
Scenario
A food truck sold tickets for a weekend food festival. The sheet shows how many tickets were sold on Saturday and on Sunday. You want Excel to add the two days together, and to keep the total right if either number is corrected later.
Your task
- Look at the sheet. Saturday's tickets are in A2 and Sunday's tickets are in B2. The empty highlighted cell, C2, is yours.
- Select C2 and type an equals sign, =, to tell Excel you are writing a formula.
- Add the two cells using their addresses and the + sign.
- Press Enter, then select Check Answer.
You are done when
- C2 contains a formula that adds A2 and B2.
- The total changes if you change Saturday's or Sunday's number.
What you will practise
Know what a cell, a cell reference and a formula are, and write a formula that adds two cells.
New here? How an exercise works
- Read the task. Highlighted cells are yours to fill in; the rest are locked.
- Select (or tap) a highlighted cell and type a formula. It starts with =, like =A1+B1.
- Press Check answer. Stuck? Reveal hints one at a time.
The idea in 30 seconds
A spreadsheet is a grid of boxes called cells. Every cell has an address made of its column letter and its row number: the cell in column B, row 2 is B2. When you write that address in a formula, you are using a cell reference: you are telling Excel to use whatever number is in that cell, now and every time it changes.
Spreadsheet
Loading spreadsheet…
Keyboard shortcuts
- Arrow keys
- Move between cells
- Shift + Arrow keys, or drag with the mouse
- Select a range
- Ctrl + Arrow keys
- Jump to the edge of a block of data
- Type, or F2, or double-click
- Edit a cell (F2 switches arrow keys between moving and editing)
- Click or arrow keys inside a formula
- Insert a cell reference after =, +, (, comma and similar
- F4
- Cycle a reference through A1, $A$1, A$1, $A1
- Enter / Tab while editing
- Confirm and move down / right (Shift reverses)
- Esc
- Cancel the edit
- Ctrl + C / X / V
- Copy, cut and paste (formulas adjust like in Excel)
- Delete
- Clear the selected cells
- Ctrl + Z / Ctrl + Y
- Undo and redo
- Ctrl + Enter
- Check your answer
- Tab when not editing
- Leave the spreadsheet
Type your answer in cell C2. Click a cell and type. Enter confirms, Esc cancels, Ctrl+Enter checks your answer.Tap a highlighted cell to type in it, then tap the green tick to confirm. Scroll the sheet sideways if it is wider than your screen.
The full explanation: the idea behind this exercise
A spreadsheet is a grid of boxes called cells. Every cell has an address made of its column letter and its row number: the cell in column B, row 2 is B2. When you write that address in a formula, you are using a cell reference: you are telling Excel to use whatever number is in that cell, now and every time it changes.
A formula is an instruction that Excel calculates for you. It always starts with an equals sign, followed by what to calculate, for example =D1+E1 adds the numbers in D1 and E1. The + sign adds, - subtracts, * multiplies and / divides. Pointing at cells instead of typing numbers is the whole point: change a number in the sheet and every formula that uses it updates by itself, with no retyping.
Skills you will practise
- Cell references
- Formulas
- Addition
Common mistakes to avoid
- Typing the numbers instead of the cells
- A formula made only of numbers gives the right total today and stays wrong when a number in the sheet changes.
- Forgetting the equals sign
- Without =, Excel treats what you type as plain text, so nothing is calculated.