Chapter 15 (Chapter 4 Revisited): Excel Tutorial (Dragging Formulas and the IF
Function)
After completing the tutorial, you will be able to drag formulas from one cell to another.
You will also learn how to use the IF Function. This function is one of the most used
functions in Excel.
Dragging Formulas and the IF Function – the following steps will help you to drag
formulas and to use the IF Function. To do these exercises please refer to Chapter 4,
Self-Study Problem Part 3.
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5.
An easy way of copying formulas is by dragging a cell. To drag a cell, click
the bottom right hand corner and either drag across the row or down a column.
For example, in E11, the formula included is =B2-D11. By dragging it to
E15, this formula will be copied into the respective cells. By dragging this
formula downward, the formula in the cell below will change to =B3-D12, Box used
to drag
and will continue to increase.
formulas
To prohibit the formula to change during the dragging process, lock the
formula in the original cell. This can be done by pressing F4 on each cell
referenced within the original cell. This would change the formula in the
original cell to =$B$2-$D$11. When dragging the formula downward, the
formula in the cell below will be =$B$2-$D$11.
As a review, in cell E16, we can use the =sum( function to get total applied
factory overhead. The formula for E16 will look like this: =sum(E11:E15).
For cell E19, the absolute function would have to be used. This function takes
a negative number, and shows the number as a positive number. The formula
for E19 will look like this: =ABS(E16-D19).
An effective way of illustrating if the factory overhead is under applied or
over applied is to use the if statement function. The IF function allows you to
assign a condition and returns one value if the condition is true and another
value if it is false. The formula for F19 will look like this: =IF(E16D19>0,"Underapplied","Overapplied").