MS Excel functions glossary

Excel has so many functions that a reference guide is simply necessary. Those available now have their pros and cons, so I decided to compile my own.

Description of this reference guide

This reference guide contains over 150 Excel functions with real-life usage examples. Functions are presented both as a unified list and in separate categories.

The official Excel functions reference is a thorough and extensive resource, yet it can sometimes feel too detailed and disconnected from practical use. That’s why this list was developed. :)

Unlike the official categorization in Excel, some functions here are placed under two categories. This doesn’t detract from the guide’s usefulness; instead, it provides a fresh perspective on their applications.

This reference is regularly updated and supplemented with new examples.

Why you will like this functions reference

For each function, the following are clearly provided:

1. Detailed explanation of how the function works
2. Real-life examples of using the formula
3. Common issues and errors you might encounter
4. Instructions on how to format input values and output
5. Explanation of how the formula recalculates when the sheet updates
6. Similar functions you might find useful
7. Functions often used together with this one, recommended for composite formulas
8. Examples demonstrating array formulas or combinations with other functions, where applicable

Simply click on the function name to go to the page with its detailed description and examples.

Most popular Excel functions

The Excel functions listed below are organized by their usage categories in alphabetical order, making it convenient to locate them quickly at the top of the page.

Engineering

BIN2DEC, BIN2HEX, BIN2OCT, CONVERT, DEC2BIN, DEC2HEX, DEC2OCT, DELTA, GESTEP, HEX2BIN, HEX2DEC, HEX2OCT, OCT2BIN, OCT2DEC, OCT2HEX

Financial

PMT, CUMIPMT, IPMT, PPMT, FV, RATE, NPER, PV, NPV, IRR

Information

CELL, ERROR.TYPE, INFO, ISBLANK, ISERR, ISERROR, ISLOGICAL, ISNA, ISNONTEXT, ISNUMBER, ISTEXT, NA, SHEET, SHEETS, TYPE

Logical

AND, IF, IFERROR, NOT, OR

Lookup and reference

CHOOSE, HLOOKUP, INDEX, MATCH, OFFSET, ROWS, VLOOKUP, XLOOKUP

Mathematics and trigonometry

POWER, RADIANS, RAND, ROUND, ROUNDUP, ROUNDDOWN, SIN, SINH, SQRT, SUM, SUMIF, SUMIFS, SUMPRODUCT, SUMSQ, SUMX2MY2, SUMX2PY2, SUMXMY2, TAN, TANH, TRUNC

Statistical

AVERAGE, COUNT, COUNTA, COUNTBLANK, COUNTIF, COUNTIFS, MAX, MEDIAN, MIN, MODE, PERCENTILE, RANK, STDEV, STDEVP, VAR, VARP

Text

CHAR, CLEAN, CODE, CONCATENATE, DOLLAR, EXACT, FIND, FIXED, LEFT, LEN, LOWER, MID, PROPER, REPLACE, REPT, RIGHT, SEARCH, SUBSTITUTE, TEXT, TRIM, UPPER, VALUE

Web functions

WEBSERVICE, ENCODEURL, FILTERXML, IMPORTHTML, IMPORTDATA, IMPORTFEED, IMPORTXML

All Excel functions in alphabetical order