If you want to download a company’s financial statements or data, the easiest place is often straight from the source: the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). You can download financials in Excel format if there is an interactive option within the SEC filing, but that won’t give you all the tables contained in an earnings report. In this example, I’m going to use Adobe’s most recent earnings report to show you how to get a table into Excel
Downloading the data
Adobe’s earnings report is found here, with the following financials on page 4:
Copying it into Excel
Copy the table and then go to paste it data into Excel. But when you right-click in Excel, make sure to select the option to paste it so it matches the formatting on the sheet, as shown below:
Now, the data pastes without any of the colors and formatting onto my Input sheet:
If when you paste it doesn’t show up like this and it looks like just a few lines, re-try copying the data. It may help not to include the header that says “three months ended” and simply start copying from the first line item (“revenue” in the above example”) to ensure that Excel picks it up as a table.
Formatting the data
It looks pretty good except that I have many extra columns. And numbers that have dollar signs have been pushed out by one column. What I will do here is create a template in a separate sheet that will automatically pull in what is needed. The new tab, called Output, will be where I create my formulas. My assumption is that the spacing will be consistent and that the current period values are in columns D and E, and the ones from the prior-year period are in columns J and K.
Starting in cell A1, I’ll create a simple formula that checks if the same value on the other sheet is blank. If it isn’t, then it will pull in the value, otherwise, it will remain blank:
=IF(Input!A1="","",Input!A1)
I will do the same thing for column B, except this time I am looking at values from the Input tab in column D. And I will need to adjust for if there is a $ sign. If there is, I need to pull the value from column E instead. Here’s what that formula looks like:
That gets me a bit closer to where I want to get to:
There are still a couple of issues. The first is that on row 30, there is a symbol that isn’t a dash that I need to remove. This is character code #151. And there’s also a trailing blank space behind the numbers that needs to be removed. This isn’t your ordinary blank space and it is character code #160. I need a couple of SUBSTITUTE functions to remove those character codes:
For character 151, I want to replace this with a 0 value since that’s what the symbol is in place of. Next, I need to convert these values to numbers. I can do this by multiplying them by a factor of 1. I’m going to use the IFERROR function as well so that in case it’s text, it will return the original value in column D. Here’s my completed formula:
Now, I can repeat this formula in the adjacent column. Except this time instead of referencing D and E, I’ll refer to columns J and K. Now, my output tab looks as follows, after applying some formatting to it:
This can be re-used over for other tables in an SEC report, as they generally follow the same pattern. For example, this is Adobe’s table showing sales by segment:
By dropping this into my Input tab, this is what my Outputnow shows:
All that I needed to do was to copy the formulas and just adjust the columns they referenced on the Inputtab. If you’d like to use the file I’ve created for your own use, you can download it for free, from here.
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Do you want to calculate how long a team’s winning streak is, or how many cells in a row meet certain criteria? In this post, I’ll show you how you can calculate streaks in Excel. Unlike a simple count function, this will require being able to reset your count and go back to zero. I’ll show how this can be done using an easy approach that involves a helper column, and a more challenging way that doesn’t require one.
The easy way to calculate streaks
Here are some results, showing wins (W), losses (L), and ties (T).
The helper column I’m going to create will evaluate the criteria. And the criteria, in this case, will be whether the result is a win. For this, all that’s required is a simple IF statement checking if the value is a W:
=IF(A2="W",1,0)
If the result is a W, the formula will return a value of 1, otherwise, it will be 0:
Next to that column, I will create another one for the actual streak. This formula will look at the criteria column, and if it equals 0, then the streak is 0. If it’s a value of 1, then it will add on to the previous value in the streak column, and thus, add on to it. The formula is as follows:
=IF(B2=0,0,B2+C3)
And that results in the following calculations:
The assumption here is that the earlier results are at the bottom and the most recent games are at the top.
If you wanted to calculate how many games were either won or tied in a row, and thus, an undefeated streak, all you need to do here is to adjust the criteria column. The updated formula would be this:
=IF(OR(A2="W",A2="T"),1,0)
And now the streak values change:
The difficult approach, without helper columns
If you don’t want to use a helper column, calculating streaks is a bit more challenging. You will be using an IF function and checking for criteria, but this time you’ll need to always adjust your starting point (i.e where the streak is 0). And that will need to be within a SUM function to ensure that the values are added. The key to making this work is using the INDIRECT function so that you have control over the exact range you want to include.
Inside that function, I’ll start with column A and use the current row the cell is on, which can be done using the ROW function. Here’s how it starts:
INDIRECT("A"&ROW(B2)&":A"
B2 reflects the first cell in the streak calculation, and it will return a value of 2. The last cell needs to be the last time the streak was broken — when the team recorded a loss. This involves using the MATCH function and searching for an “L”. That formula is as follows:
MATCH("L",INDIRECT("A"&ROW(B2)&":A15"),0)
Here again, I use the ROW function and as my ending cell, I put A15, which is the last cell in the range. This could be adjusted to use a MAX function to make it variable. Since the MATCH function will return a number corresponding to its position within the range (e.g. it won’t return the actual row), I will adjust for the row number immediately above the first cell to be searched. In this case, since I’m searching cells A2:A15, I need to add 1 to ensure I get the row number and adjust for the fact that the MATCH function doesn’t begin from the very first row. I will add all this together into my earlier formula:
The one last adjustment that’s necessary is to account for if there is no loss found and the team starts on a winning streak. For this, I’ll add an IFERROR function just before the MATCH function so that if it evaluates to a 0 (after adding the 1), then it will default to the last row (15):
Given how complex this formula is, it can get messy if you create too many conditions in it. And if you do have multiple criteria you’re dealing with, then the first approach may be the more practical one to use in that case.
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In Excel, you can create quick and easy visuals with only a formula. You don’t need to insert charts or worry about if they are set up correctly. In this post, I’ll show you how you can quickly create both bar and column charts.
For this example, I’m going to use data from Apple’s most recent earnings report, to see the split between sales of its different categories. Here’s what the data looks like from its most recent filing:
To create a simple bar chart, I’m going to use the REPT function, which allows me to repeat text. The character I’m going to repeat is the “|” line, which on most keyboards is the button above the enter key. Holding shift and that key should give you that line. The number of times I want to repeat the character will be the value in column B. But because it’s too large, I’m going to divide it by a factor of 100. Here’s how that formula will look:
=REPT("|",B4/1000)
If I copy this down, my bar chart remains a work in progress:
One way to make this look like more of a bar chart is by changing the font. In column C, I’m going to change it to Britannic Bold. And now, this looks like a proper bar chart:
If I sort the values from largest to smallest, then it’s easier to see the progression:
This is good, but this is also still a bar chart. To convert this into a column chart, I need to make a couple of changes. The first thing is I need to arrange the data differently so that the fields and the values are going horizontally rather than vertically. To do this, you can just transpose the data. You can do this using the TRANSPOSE function. Now, my data is better suited for a column chart:
Now, I’ll add back the REPT function and use the same font. Except for this time, I will modify the cells so that the alignment is vertical:
Now, after compressing the columns, I have a column chart set up:
Here’s a quick video showing the steps:
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Did you know that you can group numbers in Excel using tags? By just listing all the categories an item should belong to, you can make it easier to group them. In this post, I’ll show you how you can use tags in Excel to efficiently summarize different categories.
Creating tags
Suppose you wanted to list all the possible streaming services you might subscribe to. You might have a list that looks something like this:
This is fine if you want to compare them or even tally them all up. But what if you wanted to look at different scenarios, such as what if you select some of these services, but not all of them? This is where tags can be really helpful. Let’s say I want to create the following categories:
Basic
Kids
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
Each category will have a different mix of services. Here’s how I can use tags to make that happen. I’ll create another column next to the price where I specify all the categories a service will fall under:
In the above example, Netflix is included in every package but HBO Max is only included in Tier 3. Next, what I’m going to do is create columns for each one of these tags, such as follows:
Without using tags, you might be tempted to put a checkmark to determine which service belongs in which category. But that’s not necessary here. Instead, I’m going to use a function to determine whether to pull in the price or not.
Using a formula to determine if a tag is found
The key to making this work is the SEARCH function. This will look within the tag values to see if there is a match. If there is, then the price will be populated within the corresponding category. To check if the ‘basic’ keyword is found within the tags related to Netflix (assume this is cell C2), this is how that formula would look:
=SEARCH(“basic”,C2,1)
This will return a value of 1, indicating that the term is found at the very start of the string. If you use the function to look for the word ‘kids’ then it would return a value of 8 as that comes after ‘basic in my example.’ Of key importance here is that there is a number. If there isn’t a number and instead there is an error, that means that the tag wasn’t found. I will adjust the formula as follows to check if there is a number:
=ISNUMBER(SEARCH(“basic”,C2,1))
This will return a value of either TRUE or FALSE. But the formula needs to go further than just identifying if the tag was found. It needs to pull in the corresponding value. To do this, I’ll need an IF statement to extract the value from column B:
=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(“basic”,C2,1)),B2,0)
By freezing the formulas and copying this across the other categories, this formula will now allow me to pull in the amounts correctly based on the tags:
But let’s say you don’t even want to do this, you just want to quickly group the totals without these extra columns. You can also do that with the help of tags.
Summarizing the totals by category
You don’t need to create a column for each group if you don’t want to. You summarize the total in just an array formula. Simply use the formula referenced earlier and include it within a SUM function, while referencing the entire range:
This is the same logic as before, except this time the values will be totaled together. On older versions of Excel, you may need to use CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER after entering this formula for it to correctly compute as an array. But if you’re using a newer version, you don’t need to. If you copy the formula to the other categories, you’ll be able to sum the values by without the need for additional columns:
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In Excel, IF statements give you way to handle multiple scenarios. You can determine which result to return based on another value or input that a user makes. A common example is where a cell contains no value. You can create a formula to say if the value is blank, you return a result that is blank. And if it isn’t blank, you can perform a calculation. IF statements work similarly in Power Query although you can’t enter them in cells. Below, I’ll show you how you can create a conditional IF statement in Power Query and how you can use it in your data set.
In this example, I’m going to use data from the data.gov website on the Tuition Assistance Program. You can download the CSV data from here if you want to follow along.
Getting the data into Power Query
Once you have downloaded the data, the first step is to pull it into Power Query. For that step, just click anywhere on the data set and under the Data tab, click on the option to get data From Sheet:
The data is fine in the shape that it is right away so there is no need to make any changes when loading it into Power Query.
Creating a Conditional Column in Power Query
Suppose we wanted to just differentiate the data between whether the funding is related to the private sector or the public. You could do a pivot table but if you want to just have a column to pull in those amounts separately, you can create a conditional column. A conditional column works like an IF statement, only it is easier to set up.
One thing to remember with Power Query is if you want to just alter the current column, you want to stay on the Transform tab. But if you want to create a brand new column — which is what I’ll be doing in this example — you want to go onto the Add Column tab at the top:
Once you are on the Add Column section, you will see an option for a Conditional Column right below it:
Click on that button, and then you will see the following window:
For the column name at the top, I will call it Private Funding, since that is what I want to calculate. And the criteria is simple: I’m going to set it so that if the Sector Type column is equal to PRIVATE (this is case-sensitive in Power Query), then the output will be the TAP Recipient Dollars column. Otherwise, I want the value to be zero. Here is what that looks like:
You’ll notice that on the output, value, and else fields, there is a down arrow. Clicking on this will allow you to switch between a column or a value. You can specify if you want to enter a value or reference a column. In this case, I want to reference an entire column if the criteria is met. And if it isn’t, I want to set it to a value — zero. For the operator, you also don’t need to look for an exact match, that too can give you various options:
Once that is set up, I have a column called Private Funding in Power Query that is equal to the TAP Recipient Dollars if it is Private funding only. Otherwise, it is set to 0:
Now, I can repeat these steps for Public Funding and will now have a value in either private or public funding:
You may think this is a bit redundant but it saves having to create a pivot table if I wanted to do a summary (or a SUMIF function). One of the great things about Power Query is when I no longer need a column, I can just delete it. If I right-click on the original Sector Type column, there is an option to Remove from the shortcut menu:
This doesn’t impact my table because Power Query saves the steps I take and each time repeats the same order. This way it is safe to remove the unnecessary tab and avoid having redundant data that isn’t needed anymore.
Using the conditional column option is easy but if you want something more versatile to possibly include other Power Query functions, you can also use the Custom Column button, which I’ll cover next.
Creating an IF Statement Using a Custom Column
The option to create a Custom Column is also under the Add Column section:
In this example, I will create a conditional column to look at if the TAP Level of Study column indicates at least a 4-year degree. By looking at the values there, we can see that the years are indicated in the first number:
If this was in a spreadsheet, I could just use the LEFT function to extract the first number. But in Power Query, I’m going to do it a little differently. Instead of the LEFT function, I am going to use the Text.Start function (these are also case-sensitive), which works the same way:
Text.Start([TAP Level of Study],1)
In this formula, I’m selecting the field, TAP Level of Study, and extracting just the first character from that. However, I still need to convert this into a number if I want to evaluate it as one. Next, I need to enclose this within the Number.FromText function. My formula looks like this:
Number.FromText(Text.Start([TAP Level of Study],1))
The next step is to evaluate it to see if the value returned is greater than or equal to 4:
Number.FromText(Text.Start([TAP Level of Study],1)) >= 4
If I am content with just getting back a series of TRUE or FALSE values, then I can stop here. But if I want to customize the values to say ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ then I will need to add to this formula by adding an ‘if’ statement at the beginning. I will also need to use the ‘then’ and ‘else’ keywords to tell Power Query what I want the results to be:
if Number.FromText(Text.Start([TAP Level of Study],1)) >= 4 then “Yes” else “No”
This is how it looks in the Power Query Custom Column window:
As you can see, going through the Custom Column approach will give you more flexibility as to what you can do with your conditional statements. While the Conditional Column is easy to use, it isn’t as flexible as you might need it to be. Now, when I click OK to create this column, I know have values that show either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’:
If you are looking for other Power Query functions, you can check out this page.
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Do you want to learn how to quickly count the number of cells that meet certain criteria? How about partial matches using wildcards? Below, I’ll show you how you can do this using the COUNTIF function in Excel along with similar tasks.
How does the COUNTIF function work?
As the name suggests, the COUNTIF function in Excel will count the values in a range if they meet certain criteria. It is not case-sensitive and in most cases, people use it for entire matches. However, you can also use it if you want partial matches.
In the data sample below, I have a list of the largest stocks on the North American markets along with the sectors that they are in:
In total, my list contains 1,000 companies. To count the number that are in the Computers and Technology sector, I can do the following formula:
=COUNTIF(B:B,”computers and technology”)
Column B is where the sector name is. The above formula returns a value of 170. You’ll notice in the formula I didn’t bother matching the case because it isn’t case-sensitive and doesn’t matter how you enter the criteria in.
A better way to set this up is to reference an actual cell rather than hard-coding the criteria. This can help prevent errors and you don’t have to go into the cell to see what it is searching for. Here’s what the formulas look like:
I also added a SUM function at the bottom to see how many of the sectors are accounted for. With these formulas in place, I can easily copy down these functions to accommodate more sectors if I need more. This is what the COUNTIF function looks like in its simplest form. Next, let’s use wildcards to take it to the next level.
Using wildcards in a COUNTIF formula
There are two sectors in this data set that are similar — consumer discretionary and consumer staples. If I use the approach above, I would need to create COUNTIF formulas for both of them and then total them up:
This isn’t optimal and since the word ‘consumer’ is in both sectors, I can just have the COUNTIF function look for that, rather than creating two separate formulas and then a third to total them. To accomplish this, I’m going to use a wildcard to just look for the word ‘consumer’ :
=COUNTIF(B:B,”consumer*”)
You’ll notice the asterisk at the end of the word ‘consumer’ which will ensure that it will also include any text that comes after it. But how can this work to make the formula dynamic and reference a cell? To do that, I’ll use the & to connect the string to the asterisk:
D2 is where the consumer value is, and by linking that with the asterisk (*) it still allows the cell to be dynamic. In the following example, I put the asterisk at the end of the text but you can also put it at the beginning if you want the value to end with the word:
In my data, there is nothing that starts with trucks, but there are 30 values that end with it. The second formula counts those that end with the value. But what if you don’t care and just want to count every instance, regardless of where it is in the text? In that case, just add the asterisk before and after the criteria:
Suppose I just wanted to count all the sectors that included the letter ‘s’ :
A total of 709 sectors include the letter ‘s’ in their descriptions.
Using COUNTIF with blanks
You may also want to calculate how many of the cells are blank, nonblank, or don’t contain anything. Let’s cover those sections below:
Counting blanks cells
To count all the blank values you have two options. You can use the COUNTIF along with an empty string (“”) or you can use the COUNTBLANK function if it is available on your version of Excel. Both can generate the same results:
Since I’m looking at the entire column, there are many blank cells in my entire range.
Counting nonblank cells
If you want to count the cells that have values in them, this is what the COUNTA function is used for:
My data set had 1,000 values in it and with the header, and so the formula returns a correct result of 1,001.
Using COUNTIF to count numbers
So far, I’ve covered how you can use the COUNTIF function in Excel with text. But you may also want to count numerical values as well. In this example, I am going to pull in the market capitalization of each of the stocks listed earlier. Here’s what that looks like:
You can use the COUNTIF function like with text but exact matches aren’t as useful when it comes to numbers. Neither are wildcards. Using the greater than (>) or less than (<) operations will be much more helpful in this situation.
Let’s start with a scenario where I want to count all the stocks that are worth more than $1 trillion. To do this, my formula looks as follows:
=COUNTIF(B:B,”>1000000000000″)
Like with the wildcard, the greater than sign goes within the quotes, as does the number. You can also connect this to a cell using the & sign to make it more dynamic:
By referencing a cell and applying a number format, it is also easier to read the value than having to rely on counting the right number of zeroes within the formula. This formula correctly returns the number 5, indicating the number of stocks on the list with valuations of more than $1 trillion. I can copy this formula down and apply it to other valuations as well:
Each threshold tells me the number of stocks that are worth at least that value. But what if I don’t want to overlap and just want to know the number of companies between $500 million and $1 trillion? To do this, you will want to use the COUNTIFS function, which allows you to enter multiple criteria. It works similar to the COUNTIF function and you just continuing adding a pair of arguments (one for the range, the other for the criteria) until you are done. To count the number of companies that fall within $500 million and $1 trillion, my formula would look as follows:
In this example, I also included the equals ‘=’ operator so that it includes values that are less than or equal to $1 trillion.
This is how it might look in a table where you want the values to update dynamically:
In the first row, the COUNTIFS function isn’t needed since that is only looking at one criterion. But for the other calculations, it is pulling in only the values that fall within that range ensuring that they don’t overlap with other categories.
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A stock screener allows you to filter through stocks that meet your investment criteria. It can help you find undervalued stocks and great dividend investments. But sometimes it can be cumbersome to always go back to a website and re-apply filters, even if you save them. In this post, I’ll go over how you can populate a list of stock data into Excel and then run your own filters on it, and thus, creating a screener you can easily access from within your own spreadsheet.
Step 1: Populating the list
The one thing you’ll want to do before you can create the screener in Excel is to download an array of stock data from a database. Personally, I like using Barchart because it has lots of useful information on there and you can get a wide range of data, and it is easily downloadable into an Excel format. It lets you do five free downloads each day and you can download 1,000 rows at a time. That’s thousands of stocks you can add. Using that in conjunction with the STOCKHISTORY function, and you can create a pretty versatile template. After all, since data like earnings, dividends, and other fields won’t often change, downloading a snapshot from Barchart once a month or even less frequently shouldn’t be a big issue. You can obviously use other databases but I’m going to use a free example for the purpose of this post.
On Barchart, I’ve customized the fields I want to use for my downloads, and this allows me to re-use them again and make subsequent downloads easier. To keep it simple, I am going to download just the top 1,000 North American stocks based on market cap. This is what my download looks like in Excel:
Now that the data is loaded, the next step is to create the layout.
Step 2: Organizing the stock screener and setting up the fields
I find it most convenient to always put any inputs on a spreadsheet on the top of the page, and the results below. This way, you can freeze panes to make it easy to scroll through all the rows while seeing your selections.
To start, I will create a field for each major field I have downloaded. After formatting some of my values, this is how my screener looks thus far:
Off to the right, I’ve added a date field because I am going to utilize Excel’s STOCKHISTORY function to pull in the price. This will allow me to calculate the current price to earnings ratio without having to download it from the screener as that multiple will change every day based on the stock’s price.
When downloading so many stock prices, it may take a while for the formulas to update. But once they are loaded, then I can calculate the P/E ratio by just taking the stock price and dividing it by the earnings per share.
Step 3: Creating the formulas to evaluate the criteria
The part that will take the most time is to now evaluate each of the criteria to determine if a stock meets all of it and whether it should be included in the results. Rather than trying to do this in one large formula, I’m going to break this up into one formula per field. I’m going to name these fields exactly the same so that it is easy to reference them.
For the first criteria, Market Cap, my formula looks as follows:
D2 is where I have the dropdown for the > or < symbol and E2 is the value that I want to filter for market cap. C9 is the first row of data. My goal here is to evaluate to either a TRUE or FALSE value. I also divide the value in C9 by 1,000,000 just to make it easier to filter the market cap by millions.
For the % change calculations, I will do a similar calculation. Except this time I don’t need to divide by 1,000,000 and so it looks a lot simpler:
=IF(E3=””,TRUE,IF(D3=”>”,D9>E3,D9<E3))
D3 is my > or < dropdown while E3 is the percent change I am entering. Since I will enter a percentage here, I don’t need to make any special calculations. This is the same format that I will follow for the other fields.
Once I have set up all my calculations for the various criteria, I’m going to add one column that will check to see if the stock meets all of them. This is a simple formula where I can multiple all the values. A TRUE value will compute as 1 and a FALSE will be 0. And so even if there is one FALSE value, the entire result will return FALSE and not meet the criteria. The formula looks as follows:
The final step is a simple one but it’s also important to make this sheet work smoothly. Select anywhere on the data set and on the Insert tab, click on Table. Hit OK and now you should see Excel’s default table applied to your data.
The reason for converting this into a table is that now we can apply slicers to it. And really, only one is needed here. If you go to the Table Design tab, there is a button to Insert Slicer. Click on it and select the one for the field that checks all the other criteria. In my example, it is called Criteria Met.
After hiding all the criteria fields, changing some of the formatting and adding the slicer, this is now how my screener looks like:
The beauty of this stock screener is that by clicking on the TRUE button in the slicer, you are automatically refreshing the data in Excel and updating your filters based on the selections. All this is done without macros and it makes the screener easy to change with the press of a button.
You can download my completed template here. Please note that if you do not have STOCKHISTORY available on your version of Excel, some of the values will not populate.
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In a previous post, I covered how to create a form in Excel. Although I didn’t go over drop down lists specifically, they are one element you could incorporate into them. The problem is that your list can change over time, getting bigger or smaller. And that can make it difficult to maintain if your list isn’t dynamic as it will involve you always having to manually change the range of your drop down list. Otherwise, it could be incomplete or contain blanks. Below, I’ll show you how you can manually change your drop down list in excel and create it without blanks while also making it dynamic so that you don’t need to worry about whether it changes over time.
Setting up the drop down list
First, let’s start with the basics — creating the list. To create a drop down list in Excel, you just need a series of options to choose from. My list is going to be made up of the top 30 places to visit. I’m just going to put those names in a list.
After entering in the list of places into Excel, the next thing I will do is select all the values, and create a named range. This is as simple as just entering a value next to the formula bar, where you see the cell location. I will call this range VacationSpots:
There is no need to add headers or anything else. Just select the values, enter in a name for the list, and hit enter. A longer approach would be to go to the Formula tab and select Name Manager:
Clicking this will show you all of the named ranges in the workbook:
It shows you the named range I created. However, I could also create one from this screen and also Edit my existing range. This is where you would go to make the change manually. Clicking on the Edit button would give you this screen:
As you can, here I can manually change the address as needed in case the list changes. However, this is obviously not optimal as it can be a tedious process if your list changes frequently.
Creating the drop down
Now that my list has been created, I can set up the actual drop down. To do this, I’m going to select a cell and under the Data tab, click on Data Validation. Here, there is a place to enter your list of values:
Under the Allow section, I choose List. And for the Source, I enter the ‘=’ sign followed by my named range, VacationSpots. Now, when I click OK and go to the cell that contains the data validation, this is what I see when I select it:
Clicking on the drop down arrow will show me my list of options, in the same order that they appear in my list:
I can select any of the values and my cell will update accordingly. This is great, but what if I decided to add more items to my list, perhaps 10 or 20 more locations I want to visit? Next, I’ll go the different ways you can create drop down lists in Excel without blanks.
Option 1: Create extra spaces in your drop down list at the very end
Technically this step involves blank spaces, which is not what this post is supposed to be about. However, I just wanted to show you how this could work. If your list has dozens of items, then having extra blanks may not be that big of a deal. For example, say I edit my named range so that it goes to 50 rows. If you do that and include empty cells, this is the biggest problem you’ll face:
My list no longer starts from the top, it goes to the first blank cell. This can be an annoying problem because now it looks like all of my options aren’t there (they are, but I have to scroll up every time). This is probably the main reason people want to avoid having blank values in their lists. If the blank values simply came after all of your selections, that might be more tolerable. But because they impact where your drop down list begins from, it can be a nuisance.
The good news is there is a simple way to get around this. For all your empty cells, enter just a single empty character. Select a cell, hit the space bar, get out of the cell, and copy that value down. Now, your empty cells technically aren’t empty because they contain a space. And by doing so, the drop down list now starts from the top again. You will still have blank values, but this time they will show at the bottom of your drop down list:
If this is acceptable then you can stop here. If you are still intent on getting rid of any possible blank value whatsoever, then head over to the next option.
Option 2: Creating a table to create a nonblank list
This option is the easiest method for getting rid of blank values. What you need to do here is convert your list into a table. Select a cell on your list, click on the Insert tab and then click Table:
Leave the option for headers unchecked and then click OK. You should see something like this:
By default, Excel will apply its formatting and design but you can change the look of it to make it blend in more with your spreadsheet. You can also re-name the header from Column1. Either way, you can now create a new drop down list from this table. Since the values are in range A2:A31 in my spreadsheet, that is what I will enter for my new Data Validation list:
You can either select the range, or enter it in yourself. But if you enter it, you need to include the $ signs otherwise it will not auto-update properly. Now, I’ll go to my list add ‘New City’ to the bottom of the table. When I do that, the table automatically expands which you can notice because I haven’t changed the design and so the colors change:
And if I go back to the Data Validation settings, my source has automatically been updated:
This is a really easy way to make your drop-down list automatically update without the need for any formulas.
If the table you are referencing isn’t on the same sheet as your drop-down list, then you will need to use the INDIRECT function reference it. For instance, if you have created a table called Table1 (which should contain just one column for your list) on a different sheet, you can reference it the following way:
This will allow you to reference the list even if it is on a different sheet.
Option 3: Using a formula to remove the blanks in your drop down list
If for whatever reason creating a table isn’t an option for you, you can still create a dynamic list using a formula. Here, I’ll go back to creating a named range. Except rather than selecting a fixed set of cells, I will rely on a single formula. First, I’ll go back to the Name Manger. I’ll create a new named range. The formula for this can look a bit complex so I will break it down into parts.
First, I’m going to use the OFFSET function. This is because it can allow me to specify a height and width, which is crucial to making this work. My data starts in cell A1, and that’s where my formula will begin:
=OFFSET(A1,0,0
A1 is my starting point and that is the first argument. The next two arguments are whether I want to offset and move to any adjacent rows or columns. Since I don’t, I leave those values as zeros. It is the next argument that is critical, as it relates to the height. Here is where I will use a COUNTA function. I want to count the number of nonblank values in my list. My formula looks as follows:
=COUNTA(A:A)
I will embed this within my previous formula:
=OFFSET(A1,0,0,COUNTA(A:A)
For the width, I will set the last argument to 1, since I don’t want to include any extra columns. Here is my completed formula:
You always want to used $ signs in named ranges so that they don’t move on you. Now that this is set up, I can use this NewRange as my Data Validation source. And just like with a table, whether the list gets bigger or smaller, my named range and the drop down list will automatically update.
However, what if your list contains some formulas that look blank but really aren’t? Formulas are a great example of cells that can look empty even if they aren’t. The COUNTA function will count these values and you could again be back to square one with additional blank values. One way you can get around this is by counting the cells that are blanks, and subtracting that from the total rows. The formula would look as follows:
=ROWS(A:A)-COUNTIF(A:A,””)
Using this, you should correctly arrive at the number of cells that contain text and that aren’t blank as a result of a formula You can then insert that formula in your named range, in place of the COUNTA formula:
As you can see, this method isn’t the easiest and that is why I left it for the end. However, there are multiple different ways you can create a drop down list in excel without blanks. But it’s important because by removing blanks, it will make your form or spreadsheet look more polished by not having blank values in them.
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Depending on what kind of data you are working with and how you need to present it, you may need to show numbers in thousands, millions, or billions. Below, I’ll show you how you can quickly and easily make those conversions. You’ll also learn how to add a letter behind each number to indicate either B for billions, M for millions, or k for thousands.
Converting between billions, millions, and thousands
If you are dealing with raw numbers, to convert millions into billions you only need to multiply them by 1,000. And you don’t need to convert one value at a time. To multiply an entire range, copy a cell that contains the number 1,000 (or whatever factor you want), select the range you want to multiply, right-click paste special and you will see the following options:
Selecting the Multiply option will multiply the cell against each one of the values in the range. If you wanted to reverse the calculation and convert billions into millions, then you would follow the same steps except instead of selecting Multiply, you would choose to Divide. You can use this for other operations as well, including addition and subtraction.
Another potential use you may have for this is if you have numbers that Excel is recognizing as text. Multiplying all of them by a factor of 1 could fix that. And multiplying by -1 would flip their signs if you needed to switch them from positive to negative, or vice versa.
However, in some cases, things can be a little more complicated and you need to do more than just multiplication. When you are looking at stocks and trading volumes, for example, you may see abbreviations such as B or M. Here’s a look at some of the best-performing stocks from March 10 and their trading volumes, as per Yahoo! Finance:
While most of them contain M for million, some of the numbers are in thousands. Simply getting rid of the M wouldn’t fix this problem as then the numbers in millions would appear smaller than those that are in thousands. To fix these values, we’ll need to do two things:
Get rid of any letters.
Scale the numbers consistently.
To avoid the numbers getting too long, I’ll convert these numbers all into millions. That means for numbers that have an M, I only need to get rid of the letter. And for thousands, I need to convert those numbers into a fraction of 1 million.
This is going to require an IF statement to correctly convert all of the values. The first thing that needs to happen is to determine if the number is in thousands or millions. This just requires using the RIGHT function, which will tell us the last letter or number in a cell:
=IF(RIGHT(A1)=”M”
Where A1 is the cell that contains the value. If this test evaluates to true, then the next step will be to get rid of the letter using the SUBSTITUTE function. Since I’m leaving the values in millions, I won’t need to multiply or divide the value by anything besides 1. The formula will now look as follows:
=IF(RIGHT(A1)=”M”,SUBSTITUTE(A1,”M”,””)*1
I replaced the “M” with a blank value. I also need to multiply everything by a factor of 1 to make sure it reads as a number. Otherwise, it would simply be text.
If I also had billions in my data set, I might use another IF statement here and do the same thing, only instead of multiplying by 1, I would multiply by 1,000 to arrive at millions. For example, $1B would become $1,000.
However, the data set doesn’t include billions and so I only need to account for thousands. The remaining values that aren’t millions I can just divide by 1,000,000 to determine what fraction of 1 million they are. The factor has to be this large because the numbers are raw and aren’t in thousands.
Now I can copy this formula down across my data set, and this is how it looks:
The numbers that were in millions simply lost the ‘M’ at the end of their values. And those that were in thousands now are in decimals, indicating how much of 1 million they are. For 342,271, it now shows 0.342271.
This is a complex example where you are dealing with text and the important thing to remember is that once there are letters involved in a number, the value automatically becomes text. If you want to apply some sort of calculation, it is going to be necessary to convert it back to a number — after you have gotten rid of any letters.
How to show numbers with B, M, or k
Next up, let’s take a look at how you can add letters to an existing number. Essentially, I am going to undo what I did above. Let’s start with turning our decimals into thousands. To do this, I can look for if a value if less than 1. If it is, then I will multiply it by 1,000 and add the letter ‘k’ to the end of it. Here’s how that formula will look:
=IF(A1<1,A1*1000&”k”
My value of 0.342271 becomes 342.271k. However, if I don’t want the decimal places and I want to round, I can adjust my formula accordingly:
=IF(A1<1,ROUND(A1*1000,0)&”k”
Using the ROUND function and setting it to 0 decimal places, I round up and now my value shows as 342k.
Next, I’ll need to add an “M” if the number is in millions. If any of the numbers were in billions, what I could do is check if a number is 1,000 or greater (e.g. 1,000 million). But since I don’t have billions in this data set, I can just simply add an “M” on to everything that is not in the thousands:
=IF(A1<1,ROUND(A1*1000,0)&”k”,A1&”M”)
This is what my values look like after this latest conversion:
For argument’s sake, I’ll change the first value so that it is 1,536 and show you how I would adjust for this calculation if that were $1 billion. As mentioned above, I would check if the value was more than 1,000. And if it is, I will divide it by 1,000 and add a “B” to the end of it. My formula, accounting for millions, billions, and thousands, will look like this:
The reason I leave the millions calculation last in that formula is that I know if it isn’t less than 1 (thousands) and if it isn’t more than 1,000 (billions), then it has to be millions.
Remember: by adding letters to these numbers, they can’t be used in any sort of calculations. And so before you decide to go that route, it’s important to consider those limitations.
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When you have created formulas in Excel, you may want to extend and increment them down to other cells. In many cases, you can just drag down a cell that contains the formula and pull it down so that it automatically gets copied. However, there’s a problem if you need to increment a formula or number in an argument. Below, I’ll show you an example of this and how you can address it in multiple scenarios.
Let’s start with just pulling the largest value in a data set. Using the LARGE function, you can grab the largest value with a formula of =LARGE(A:A,1) — that will give you the largest value in column A. However, you’ll notice quickly that just copying this formula down won’t work as expected, it’ll keep copying the 1 in the second argument down; you will continue extracting the largest value. Sometimes Excel just isn’t good at detecting patterns. But there are ways you can adjust the formula to ensure your formula is incrementing correctly.
Option 1: Using an Additional Column
In a separate column, you could list the numbers 1 until 100 or whatever range you needed to and reference those. In the example below, I can pull the largest 10 items using the LARGE function and a referencing the cells to the left:
The problem with this approach is that it isn’t always practical within a spreadsheet, especially if you don’t have room to spare and don’t want to be creating extra columns for the sake of what should be a simple calculation. It may also be difficult to determine what the upper limit should be. That’s where the second option is going to be a better one.
Option 2: Using the ROW Function
There’s an easy way to adjust the above calculation so that you don’t need to reference the actual number, nor do you need to manually enter it. The trick is to use the ROW function. It returns the row value of a specified cell. If I entered =ROW(A20), it would return a value of 20 for the row value. You don’t need to enter an argument and using =ROW() will just return the row of the cell that contains the formula. The function is particularly useful when you want to increment values because as you drag it down, the results will increase by one each time.
In calculating the largest values, we’ll use the ROW function as the argument to determine which value we want, whether it’s the fifth largest or 20th largest number. Here’s how the initial formula would look like, assuming we wanted to start with the largest value:
=LARGE(D:D,ROW(A1))
In the above formula, the calculation will return the largest value since ROW(A1) will return a value of 1. Now, if the formula is copied down, here’s what it will look like:
By copying down the formula, ROW(A1) changed to reflect the next row. Excel does a better job of detecting patterns when they’re part of a function as opposed to just standalone numbers. Using the ROW function eliminates the need for the extra column. And as you’ll notice, the results are the same as in the earlier example.
This is just one example and there are many others where you can use the ROW() function to your advantage and increment values down. If you need to increment as you’re going to the right instead of down, then you’ll want to use the COLUMN function, which effectively does the same as the ROW function, only it’ll pull the column number that a cell is in.
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