Principles of Financial Modelling

CHAPTER 17Core Arithmetic and Logical Functions

INTRODUCTION

This chapter discusses a core set of functions that are required in a wide range of financial modelling applications, including revenue and cost estimation, basic statistical and data analysis, general forecasting, integrated financial statement modelling, cash flow valuation, project finance modelling, and so on. The functions are drawn from a range of Excel's categories, and include:

• IF, AND, OR and NOT.
• MIN, MAX, MINA, MAXA, MINIFS and MAXIFS.
• COUNT, COUNTA, COUNTBLANK, COUNTIF and COUNTIFS.
• SUM, AVERAGE, AVERAGEA, SUMIF, SUMIFS, AVERAGEIF and AVERAGEIFS.
• PRODUCT and SUMPRODUCT.
• AGGREGATE and SUBTOTAL.
• IFERROR.
• SWITCH.

Most of these functions are likely to be well known to many readers, and are essentially self-explanatory. Nevertheless, some specific features are worth noting, including their behaviour in special cases (such as how they treat non-numerical (text) or blank fields, or error values), as well as some issues that relate to the choice of which function to use when several are available (see also Chapter 9).

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Figure 17.1 shows the data set that will be referred to in several examples in the early part of this chapter. It shows the number of visits by specific patients to a set of physicians.

FIGURE 17.1 Data Set Used as a Basis for Several Examples in the Early Part of Chapter ...