What are some common functions in Microsoft Excel?

Some common Microsoft Excel functions include SUM, IF, LOOKUP, VLOOKUP and MATCH, as of the Excel 2013 version. SUM adds the values in selected cells, IF returns a value based on true-or-false conditions and LOOKUP finds a value from a row or column based on a selected row or column.

VLOOKUP is similar to LOOKUP, but lets you search an entire table or range by row, while MATCH returns the position of a desired value from anywhere on the spreadsheet. CHOOSE, DATE and DAYS are also useful functions. CHOOSE returns a value based on an index number, while DATE automatically returns the correct serial number associated with a particular date. DAYS shows the number of days between two given dates.

Microsoft Excel features common functions that have Web-based purposes, such as ENCODEURL, FILTERXML and WEBSERVICE. The ENCODEURL function returns a URL-encoded string as the name suggests, allowing users to embed links into the spreadsheet. FILTERXML uses an XPath to return a specific data string from a website's XML content, while WEBSERVICE returns data associated with a Web service. The Web functions are all available in the Excel 2013 version.

Microsoft Excel also features statistical functions under the Formulas tab and the Statistical or Math & Trig subcategories. These include ZTEST, CHITEST and FTEST, all of which return results for the associated statistical tests.