Excel 2013 For Dummies

Chapter 8

Doing What-If Analysis

In This Chapter

Performing what-if analysis with one- and two-variable data tables

Performing what-if analysis with goal seeking

Looking at different cases with the Scenario Manager

It would be a big mistake to regard Excel 2013 as merely a fancy calculator that shines at performing static computations, for the program excels (if you don’t mind the pun) at performing various types of more dynamic what-if analysis as well. What-if analysis enables you to explore the possibilities in a worksheet by inputting a variety of promising or probable values into the same equation and letting you see the possible outcomes in black and white (or, at least, in the cells of the spreadsheet).

In Excel 2013, what-if analysis comes in a wide variety of flavors (some of which are more involved than others). In this chapter, I introduce you to these three simple and straightforward methods:

Data tables enable you to see how changing one or two variables affect the bottom line (for example, you may want to know what happens to the net profit if you fall into a 25 percent ...