Understanding Mathematical Functions
Most of the work you do in Excel probably involves at least a few mathematical functions. The most popular among these is the SUM function, but Excel is capable of calculating just about anything. In the next sections, we discuss some of the most used (and most useful) mathematical functions in Excel.
Using the SUM Function
The SUM function totals a series of numbers. It takes the form =SUM(number1, number2, …). The number arguments are a series of as many as 30 entries that can be numbers, formulas, ranges, or cell references that result in numbers. SUM ignores arguments that refer to text values, logical values, or blank cells.
The Sum Button
Because SUM is such a commonly used function, Excel provides the
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