A spreadsheet is a computer program built mainly for calculating numbers and building graphs or charts. With a single command, it can carry out a large calculation in a very short time. Microsoft Excel is the spreadsheet program used most often, though there are others.
Rows, columns, and cells
A spreadsheet is laid out as a grid. The lines running left to right are called rows, and they are numbered 1, 2, 3, and so on. The lines running up and down are called columns, and they are lettered A, B, C, and so on. The small box where a row and a column meet is called a cell, and each cell has its own name, made from its column letter followed by its row number. For example, the cell in column C and row 2 is called C2.
What a spreadsheet can do
Once numbers or data are typed into cells, a spreadsheet can arrange them alphabetically, sort them from smallest to largest or the other way round, and add, subtract, multiply, or divide them. It can also turn the data into a chart or a graph, which often makes the data much easier to study at a glance.
Doing calculations with a formula
To calculate something in a spreadsheet, we click the cell where we want the answer to appear, and type a formula that always starts with an equal sign. For example, typing =D2+D7 in a cell adds together whatever numbers are in cells D2 and D7. The same idea works for subtracting with a minus sign, multiplying with a star sign, and dividing with a forward slash. Excel also has a quick autosum button, shown as the Greek letter sigma, which adds up a whole row or column of selected cells in one click.
Drag to repeat
Clicking a cell and dragging its bottom-right corner down over other cells repeats the same kind of formula for each row, without retyping it every time.
Charts make data clear
Selecting data and inserting a chart turns rows of numbers into a picture, such as a line graph or a bar chart, so a reader understands it the moment they see it.
Always start a formula with an equal sign. If a cell shows the letters and numbers we typed instead of a calculated answer, the equal sign at the start was probably missed.
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