Excel Formulas and Functions For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Chapter 17

Playing Records with Database Functions

In This Chapter

Understanding an Excel database structure

Figuring out how criteria work

Adding, averaging, and counting database records

Testing for duplicate records

Believe it or not, an Excel worksheet has the same structure as a database table. A database table has fields and records; an Excel worksheet has columns and rows. Same thing. Given this fact, why not ask questions of, or query, your information in much the same way as is done with a database?

In this chapter, I tell you how to use Excel’s database functions to get quick answers from big lists. Say you have a client list on a worksheet — name, address — that sort of thing. You want to know how many clients are in New York. You may think about sorting your list by state and then counting the number of rows. Forget it. That’s the old way! In this chapter, I show you how to do this sort of thing with a single function.

Putting Your Data into a Database Structure

To use the database functions, you need to put your data into a structured format. Excel is very ...