Microsoft® Excel® 2010 Inside Out

Using Formulas with Tables

Excel formulas are extremely powerful and useful. They can also be cryptic. What exactly does a formula such as =TODAY()–D2 actually mean? Without looking at the worksheet, it’s impossible to tell. But what if the formula looked like =TODAY()–[Date of Birth] instead? Just by looking at the formula, you can tell that it calculates the current age in days.

One of the exciting table features introduced in Excel 2007 was the ability to create meaningful formulas in a simple, unambiguous way. One of the most common uses of a formula in a table is to perform a calculation that looks only at values from other rows of the same table. This type of formula is extraordinarily easy.

For example, using traditional formulas to calculate ...