Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-tips-for-trouble...
10 Things
Takeaway: Finding and fixing errors in formulas and functions can be tedious and time-consuming. Here are some practical tips to help you cut to the chase. Troubleshooting an Excel worksheets formulas and functions can be a big job. Errors just come with the package. Excel offers some valuable auditing tools, found on the Formulas tab in the Formula Auditing group, but you wont always need that much power. Sometimes, just a bit of special knowledge can help you resolve an error. These 10 tips will help even the most experienced Excel users find common errors quickly.
1 of 5
06/03/2012 08:48
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-tips-for-trouble...
3: Evaluate components
One of the quickest ways to track down a problem is to evaluate individual components in the Formula bar or even right in the cell. Specifically, you highlight a cell reference or simple equation, press [F9], and Excel evaluates the highlighted expression and returns the result in the Formula bar. Either way, you can quickly pinpoint specific problems with logic. (To edit in-cell, simply double-click the cell. If that doesnt work, check the Advanced Editing Options.) Press [Esc] when youre done. Figure A shows a simple IF() function that returns the string is down if the yearly total for 2011 is less than 2010 well, its supposed to. When evaluating the expression in the Formula bar, as shown in Figure B, you can quickly see that the true and false actions dont match the conditional statements intent. This works, this time, because the expression follows the conditional logic: $44,075 is less than $45,962. But that wont always be the case. You can also use the Formula bar to learn a constants value and to discover errors caused by invalid data. Its not just for troubleshooting formulas.
Figure A
Figure B
Evaluating a portion of the formula in the Formula bar helps you pinpoint logic errors.
The Evaluate Formula option on the Formulas tab (in the Formula Auditing group) works similarly. Its a bit more methodical but certainly useful. In Excel 2003, youll find Evaluate Formula on the Tools menu under Auditing.
Figure C
2 of 5
06/03/2012 08:48
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-tips-for-trouble...
The down arrow to the right indicates that theres more to this formula.
To separate formula components, simply position the cursor where you want the formula to wrap to a new line and press [Alt]+Enter. Breaking an expression across lines can help you confine expression logic, where each line contains a step toward the resulting value. (Doing so often confuses users, though.)
Figure D
Toggling between formulas and their results can help spot errors and inconsistencies.
Figure E
Display both formulas and their results to work more efficiently while troubleshooting.
You can also click Show Formulas in the Formula Auditing group on the Formulas tab to toggle between these two views. In Excel 2003, choose Options from the Tools menu. Then, click the View tab and check or uncheck the Formulas options in the Window Options section.
Figure F
3 of 5
06/03/2012 08:48
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-tips-for-trouble...
Figure G
If you need a more permanent solution, read Identify which cells in Excel are formula cells.
4 of 5
06/03/2012 08:48
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-tips-for-trouble...
text. There are two possible fixes: If theres an apostrophe character at the beginning of the function, delete it. Make sure you havent formatted the cell as Text. If you did, change it to General or something more appropriate.
Additional resources
Five tips for avoiding data entry errors in Excel Five tips for troubleshooting formulas in Excel The 10 most important things to teach your Excel users 10 Excel formatting decisions that can have unfortunate repercussions 10 mistakes to avoid when working with multiple worksheets 10 ways to screw up your spreadsheet design Five of my favorite Excel worksheet tips 10 ways to keep Excel from biting you in the butt Automatically sign up for TechRepublic's 10 Things newsletter!
5 of 5
06/03/2012 08:48