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10 Essential Excel Functions Everyone Should Know

A handful of Excel functions cover the vast majority of everyday spreadsheet work -- here is how to actually use them, not just what they are called.

SUM and AVERAGE: the basics worth doing right

=SUM(A1:A10) adds a range of cells, and =AVERAGE(A1:A10) finds their mean. The most common mistake is selecting a range that misses a row after inserting new data -- using a full column reference or a named table range instead of a fixed cell range avoids formulas silently going stale.

IF: basic conditional logic

=IF(condition, value_if_true, value_if_false) returns one value when a condition is met and another when it is not -- for example, =IF(B2>=60, "Pass", "Fail"). Nesting multiple IF functions works for a few conditions but becomes hard to read fast, at which point IFS or a lookup function is usually the better tool.

VLOOKUP: pulling matching data from another table

=VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_range, column_number, FALSE) searches for a value in the leftmost column of a range and returns a value from a specified column in that same row. The FALSE argument matters -- it forces an exact match, since leaving it out (or using TRUE) can silently return the wrong row if there is no perfect match.

COUNTIF: counting cells that meet a condition

=COUNTIF(range, criteria) counts how many cells in a range meet a specific condition, such as =COUNTIF(A1:A100, ">50") or =COUNTIF(B1:B100, "Complete") -- useful for quick tallies without building a full pivot table.

SUMIF: adding up values that meet a condition

=SUMIF(range, criteria, sum_range) adds only the values in sum_range where the corresponding cell in range meets the criteria -- for example, summing all sales amounts in column B where the region in column A equals "West."

INDEX + MATCH: a more flexible alternative to VLOOKUP

=INDEX(return_range, MATCH(lookup_value, lookup_range, 0)) does what VLOOKUP does but can look leftward as well as rightward, and does not break if columns are inserted or reordered, since MATCH locates the position dynamically rather than referencing a fixed column number the way VLOOKUP does.

Why VLOOKUP breaks more often than people expect

VLOOKUP references a column by its position number within the lookup range, so inserting or deleting a column anywhere inside that range shifts every VLOOKUP formula's result without any error message -- the formula still runs, it just silently returns the wrong answer. This single behavior is the most common cause of "my VLOOKUP was working yesterday" problems, and is the main reason INDEX+MATCH is often recommended for larger, more actively edited spreadsheets.

Combining functions is where the real power shows up

These functions are rarely used in true isolation in practical work -- a COUNTIF nested inside an IF, or a SUMIF combined with a VLOOKUP result, is a common pattern once you are comfortable with each function individually. Learning each one's syntax is the first step; learning to combine two or three of them to answer a specific question is what actually saves time day to day.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between VLOOKUP and INDEX+MATCH in practice?

VLOOKUP is simpler to write and fine for small, stable spreadsheets, but INDEX+MATCH is generally more robust for larger or frequently edited files, since it does not break when columns are inserted and can search in either direction rather than only rightward from the lookup column.

Why does my formula show an error like #N/A or #VALUE?

#N/A usually means a lookup function could not find a matching value (often due to extra spaces, mismatched data types, or a genuine typo), while #VALUE typically means a formula is trying to do math on something that is not actually a number, such as text formatted to look like a number.