Google Sheets Formulas Tutorial (Part 2)

Updated: January 14, 2023

This blog post will be about formula in Google Sheet. You can use Google Sheet as calculator.
1. Start a calculation
You start will an = sign. It means that you are trying to do a calculation. For instance, I will start a simple calculation =5+10
Simple calculation

It gives you the total is 15. You press Enter and it applies in the cell. If you click on this cell, you can see the formula next to fx in the top left corner.

If you want to change the formula, you can either click on the cell or the formula near fx

2. Order of operations

  • Order of operations are parentheses (), exponent ^, multiplication and division +/, addition and subtraction +-

  • I will give you an example, we have an calculation 5+2*4.
    Because there is no parentheses and exponent so multiplication will be calculated first 2*4=8 and then add 5 equals 13.

  • If we have other calculation (5+2)*4. Because parentheses has higher precedence so 5+2=7 first and then multiply 4 equals 28.

  • Another example, i have a formula 8/2*4. Because there is no difference between multiplication and division so we will calculate from left to right. Therefore, 8/2=4 and multiply 4 equals 16

3. Calculate total of each item
3.1. I assume that we need to calculate total of the following mobile devices
Total calculation

3.2. Firstly, I need to multiply 2 with 1000
2*1000

3.3. We have a serious problem. Assuming that quantity is modified to 3, we need to go back to formula and change to 3*1000. It is time consuming. Spreadsheet has a better approach by using cell reference. D4 contains quantity and E4 contains price. So we will modify the formula as belows:
better formula

3.4. One of other benefits of cell reference is that we do not need to type formula for F5 and F6 cells. We just click on F4 cell and see a little box in the right bottom corner of this cell and then hold and drag it down
Drag cell down

3.5. After releasing mouse, you will see total of remaining items
Total of each

If you want to calculate total of all, there are three ways to do it.

  • The first one is you can highlight F4, F5, F6 cells use Explore window and drag Sum formula to cell you want.
    Total using explore

  • The second one is you select cell want to show result, and then use Function menu, click on Sum and enter =sum(F4:F6)
    Total Z function

  • The third one is that you enter the formula =sum(F4:F6) manually
    Total Z function

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