CPSC-130
Computing With Spreadsheets
Decision Making
Week 3
Decision Making
Quality of decisions
Ways Excel helps
5/29/2016
Brenda Vander Linden and Aaron Armstrong
2
Garbage In, Garbage Out
Tale of James A. Cummings Inc.
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Input
Processing
Output
Bad
Whatever
Bad
Good
Bad
Bad
Good
Good
Good
Brenda Vander Linden and Aaron Armstrong
3
Making Quality Decisions
Excel is only a tool.
Double check
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Input
Processing
Good formatting helps
Then and only then use the spreadsheet
for decision making.
5/29/2016
Brenda Vander Linden and Aaron Armstrong
4
Ways Excel helps
Functions
Built in commands
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Goal Seek
Scenario Manager (Chapter 6)
Solver (Appendix B)
Brenda Vander Linden and Aaron Armstrong
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Functions
Predefined formulas

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Take arguments (parameters) as input
Return some calculated value as output.
Examples
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Sum
Average
Writing a function
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Insert Function
fx Icon
Just type
Brenda Vander Linden and Aaron Armstrong
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Functions Continued
In conjunction with cell ranges, allow
addition/deletion of rows/columns
Logic functions allow rudimentary
programming
Useful
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Predefined: PMT is hard to write
Smart: auto add inserted column/row
Flexible: IF allows conditional behavior
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Many functions available
Math
Finance
Date
Text
Database
Statistical
Logical
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Abs, Log, Rand, Round, Sum
FV, PV, Pmt
Today, Now, Minute
Find, Substitute, Trim, Upper
DAverage, DCount, DMin
Average, Rank, Stdev
If, And, Or, Not
Brenda Vander Linden and Aaron Armstrong
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IF
If condition

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Then Value1
Else Value2
Example

=IF(A1>60, “Pass”, “Fail”)
Nesting Example
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=IF(A1>85, “Good”, IF(A1>60, “Okay”, “Fail”))
Brenda Vander Linden and Aaron Armstrong
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VLookup
Looks up a value from a sorted table
Parameters

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Value to look up
Table reference
Column number
=VLOOKUP(I4, $I$20:$J$24, 2)
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PMT and FV
PMT: Periodic Payments
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Interest rate
Number of payments
Present value (negative for loans)
FV: Future value of an investment
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Interest rate
Number of payments
Payment made each period
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Built-in Commands
Hide
Freeze panes
AutoFilter
Sort
Goal Seek
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Brenda Vander Linden and Aaron Armstrong
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