EXCEL : INTRODUCTION AND FUNDAMENTALS OF EXCEL.

Excel is one of the most commonly used tools for working with data.

You can use it to enter information, organize it, format it, clean it, perform calculations, and identify patterns.

In this guide, we'll use a simple sales dataset to learn the fundamentals.

NB : I have used a made up dataset in my analysis.

1. Understanding Excel

An Excel file is called a workbook.

A workbook contains worksheets.

A worksheet is made up of:

Columns — A, B, C, D...
Rows — 1, 2, 3, 4...
Cells — where rows and columns meet

For example:

B4

means Column B, Row 4.

A group of cells is called a range.

For example:

A1:D10

1. Our Example Dataset

We'll use a simple sales dataset:

Date Customer Region Salesperson Product Qty Unit Price Sales
01-Aug Alpha Traders Maputo Dinis Nation PVA 10 750 7,500
02-Aug Benny Hardware Beira Laura Weather Guard 5 1,200 6,000
03-Aug City Build Maputo Dinis Primer 8 900 7,200
04-Aug Delta Supplies Nampula Imran Nation PVA 20 750 15,000
05-Aug Eastside Stores Xai-Xai Ricardo Gloss Enamel 6 1,500 9,000

Each row represents a sale.

Each column describes something about that sale.

This is the basic structure you'll see in many real-world datasets.

1. Basic Formatting

Formatting controls how your data looks.

You can change:

Font
Font size
Bold
Background
Borders
Alignment
Number formats
Date formats

For example:

7500

can be displayed as:

7,500.00

The formatting makes the number easier to read.

Alignment

You can align information:

Left
Center
Right
Top
Middle
Bottom

You can also use Wrap Text when text is too long for a cell.

1. Number and Date Formatting

Different types of information should be displayed appropriately.

Numbers
7500

can become:

7,500.00
Dates
01/08/2026

can be displayed as:

01-Aug-2026

Good formatting makes a spreadsheet easier to understand without changing the underlying data.

1. Sorting and Filtering Sorting

You can arrange Sales from:

Largest → Smallest

For our example:

15,000
9,000
7,500
7,200
6,000
Filtering

You can filter the dataset to show only:

Region = Maputo

Now you see only the Maputo sales.

Sorting and filtering are simple but important tools for exploring data.

1. Conditional Formatting

Conditional formatting automatically changes the appearance of cells when a condition is met.

For example:

Highlight all sales above 10,000.

Excel can automatically highlight:

15,000

while leaving the other values unchanged.

You can use conditional formatting to identify:

High or low sales
Duplicates
Negative values
Values above/below a target
Trends and patterns

1. Text Functions

Excel can also manipulate text.

CONCAT

CONCAT joins text together.

For example:

=CONCAT(B2," - ",D2)

could produce:

Alpha Traders - Dinis

This is useful when you want to combine information from multiple columns.

REPLACE

REPLACE changes part of a text string based on its position.

For example:

=REPLACE(B2,1,5,"New")

This replaces characters within the text.

Important: REPLACE works based on character position.

1. Core Excel Formulas

Now we can start asking questions about our sales data.

SUM

Adds values together.

=SUM(H2:H6)

Question:

What are our total sales?

AVERAGE

Calculates the average.

=AVERAGE(H2:H6)

Question:

What is the average sale?

COUNT

Counts cells containing numbers.

=COUNT(H2:H6)

Question:

How many numeric sales records do we have?

COUNTA

Counts cells that aren't empty.

=COUNTA(B2:B6)

Question:

How many customer entries do we have?

MIN and MAX

Find the smallest and largest values.

=MIN(H2:H6)
=MAX(H2:H6)

Questions:

What was the smallest sale?

What was the largest sale?

1. IF

IF allows Excel to make a decision.

For example:

=IF(H2>=10000,"High","Normal")

Excel checks the sales value.

If it is 10,000 or more, it returns:

High

Otherwise:

Normal

This is the beginning of using Excel for logical analysis.

1. AND / OR

These allow you to test multiple conditions.

AND
=AND(C2="Maputo",H2>=10000)

This asks:

Is the sale from Maputo AND is it at least 10,000?

Both conditions must be true.

OR
=OR(C2="Maputo",C2="Beira")

This asks:

Is the sale from Maputo OR Beira?

Only one condition needs to be true.

1. SUMIF and SUMIFS

These allow you to calculate totals based on conditions.

SUMIF

For example:

What are the total sales in Maputo?

=SUMIF(C2:C6,"Maputo",H2:H6)
SUMIFS

SUMIFS allows multiple conditions.

For example:

What are the total Nation PVA sales in Maputo?

=SUMIFS(H2:H6,C2:C6,"Maputo",E2:E6,"Nation PVA")

1. COUNTIF and COUNTIFS

These count records based on conditions.

COUNTIF

How many sales came from Maputo?

=COUNTIF(C2:C6,"Maputo")
COUNTIFS

How many Nation PVA sales came from Maputo?

=COUNTIFS(C2:C6,"Maputo",E2:E6,"Nation PVA")

1. AVERAGEIF

AVERAGEIF calculates an average based on a condition.

For example:

What is the average sale in Maputo?

=AVERAGEIF(C2:C6,"Maputo",H2:H6)

Instead of calculating the average of every sale, Excel only uses the sales that meet the condition.