How to Perform Basic Mathematical Operations in Microsoft Excel

To Extend a Pattern
Start a pattern in excel:

Select the first few items in the pattern:

Click on the little square at the bottom right corner of the selection box, and drag it down until you reach the maximum value you need:

Result:

To Perform Calculations Within One Cell

Select the cell in which you want to include a calculated value. Always start a calculation with an equal sign:

Type in the calculation and hit enter. Use parentheses to organize complicated arithmetic expressions. The following are some common operations that might not be obvious: To raise something to a power (square, cube, 4th power, etc.) use the ^ symbol o Example: =3^2 To take the square root of a number use the operation SQRT(#) o Example: =SQRT(4) To include pi use the abbreviation PI() o Example: =PI()*3^2

To Perform Calculations that Involve Multiple Cells

Similar to calculations above, but instead of typing in all your numbers, you will get some of the numbers from other cells. Again, start your calculation with an equal sign. Type in the equation as you normally would, but when you get to a number that you want to pull out of another cell instead of typing in individually, simply click on the cell that has the number you want to use:

Just like with a pattern, you can extend an equation. Excel even knows to advance which cell you are referring to in your equation.

There are some very useful functions that you can use on multiple cells. For instance, AVERAGE() and SUM(). To use either of these, start with an equal sign, as always, and type the function you want to use:

You can either click-and-drag to select all the cells you want to average (or calculate the sum of), or you can select individual cells, separating them with commas: