Microsoft Excel: Goal Seek and Scenarios

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Spreadsheet

A spreadsheet is a document that stores data in cells within a table of columns and rows. Rows are usually labelled using numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.), while columns are labelled with letters (A, B, C, etc.). Cells are the individual box that found between row and column for example B1 and C5 would be individual cells. Each cell can store extraordinary information. By entering information into a spreadsheet, data could be put away in a more organized manner than utilizing plain content the column/row structure likewise enables the information to be analysed utilizing equations and calculations.

For example, each row of a spreadsheet may store information about a car that Sutton Dealership will sell. Each column may store a different aspect of the car's information, such as model, make, colour, engine size, etc. The spreadsheet software can analyse this data by counting the number of people who purchased car with 2.0 litre engine size, listing all the people who purchased white cars, or performing other calculations. This makes spreadsheets similar to database.

However, spreadsheets are more efficient than databases in terms of processing numbers. This is the reason why spreadsheets are commonly used in scientific and financial sectors. For example, a spreadsheet can store Suttons Dealership Sales data, including discount information, VAT, Car Price, etc. A column that stores the car prices of several cars can easily be summed to produce the total value of all the cars purchased or using the formula MIN and MAX highest and lowest sale prices can be found as well.

Spreadsheets have now replaced paper-based schemes all over the world. Although they were first developed for accounting tasks, they now ...

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...t and extensible. You can also create different graphs and charts for data the was generated by spreadsheet or manually typed in.

Goal seek and Scenarios

Microsoft Excel has a feature called goal seek which allows you to change the data used in a formula in order to find out what the results will be. The different results can then be compared to find out which one best suit your requirements. Goal Seek is part of a suite of commands sometimes called what-if analysis tools. When the desired result of a single formula is available but not the input value the formula needs to determine the result, this can be done with utilization of the Goal Seek feature available by clicking Goal Seek on the Tools menu. When goal seeking, Microsoft Excel differs the value in one specific cell until a formula that's dependent on that cell returns the result.

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