Cells in Excel:
Data is entered and manipulated in Excel within cells. When you view
an Excel chart on the screen, each rectangle is a cell. Cells can contain
letters, numbers or equations. Equations operate on other cells in the
spreadsheet to calculate values. The cells are divided into columns,
designated by letters, and rows, designated by numbers, and are denoted
by the letter, followed by the number. For example, the first cell on a
worksheet is A1. You can enter data into cells in a
number of ways. The easiest is simply by typing the desired value into
the cell and pressing the Enter key, but this can become tedious if
there is a list or series of data that you wish to enter. This can be
done by pasting a series of data or entering an equation. You can also
plot a graph of your data.
Pasting a Series:
Pasting a series of data is useful if there is a regular pattern to the data, or if it is useful to view the form of an equation. It is of much use in analysis, but is a good introductory exercise as it illustrates some useful techniques. In this, we will see how to make three columns of regularly spaced data.
- Open new worksheet, and place the cursor in the top-left most cell (A1).
- Type 1 and press Enter. The number 1 should appear on the right side of the cell, and the cursor should move to cell A2.
- Type 2 and press Enter. The first two cells in column A should now be filled with 1 and 2.
- Select cells A1 and A2 by clicking and holding the mouse button on cell A1, dragging to cell A2, and releasing the mouse button.
- Using the mouse, place the arrow at the bottom right corner of the selection, the handle, which is marked by a small square. The cursor should change to indicate that you are on the handle.
- Click and drag the handle down to cell A10. This will fill cells A1-10 with the numbers 1 through 10. You can drag the handle to different cells to create different length series.
- To create series with different intervals, simply change the first two numbers. In cells B1 and B2, enter 0 and 0.1, respectively.
- Drag the handle to B16 to create the series.
- You can have decreasing and negative series as well.
Continue to the next page to learn how to use more advanced equations and formulas to manipulate your data.