Formula question

[mahmed1]

I have seen a few scenarios where you can Highlight some cells, enter an formula in the active cell and then voila it will give you the right result when you press enter however on other occasions i have seen where you have to enter the formula and then drag and copy it down

Im not sure if they were Array formulas but im pretty sure that it gave a different result. I would have thought it would have given the same result?

Just wanted more info on when and where i would see this kind of scenarios

Thank You

 

[baitmaster]

I think you want to highlight a range of cells, enter something in one of them, and then hit ctrl+enter to write the same value / formula into all at once

An array formula is written by selecting shift+ctrl+enter. Chip Pearson gives a useful overview of the different types, and some examples of using them http://www.cpearson.com/Excel/ArrayFormulas.aspx

 

[macness]

you can Highlight some cells, enter an formula in the active cell and then voila it will give you the right result when you press enter

This person is probably in the middle of a formula that requires a range (more than one cell). for example =sum(a1:a10) can be entered manually or typing "=sum(" and then highlighting the cells, then pressing enter.

i have seen where you have to enter the formula and then drag and copy it down

You are referring to the fill handle - they are not necessary array formulas (probably arent in most cases) but you can write a formula to be static or dynamic depending on the need.

For example if I had a range that had total sales for sales people and i had a cell that had the commission percentage, i could write a formula that would calculate the commission a particular salesperson gets. I could then copy the formula down to apply that to all salespeople (without changing the percentage but changing the sales amount).