Spreadsheets
Once a cell has been clicked on you may use it to enter data or a formula. Any of the types of data recognised by Windows can be entered into a given cell. Cells can thus hold.
| Numbers | whole numbers Excel can hold 15 decimal places |
| Date | Dates are numbers where 1 is the first of January 1900 2 the second of January and so on. |
| Time | Time is stored as HH:MM:SS where the seconds are subdivided into one hundredths. |
| Dates and time | Both the date and time can be stored in one cell. |
| Text | Up to XXX Characters including spaces |
| Currency | The Sign and the front is determined by the country settings |
| Boolean operators | (TRUE and FALSE) |
| Formulas. | These usually start with and = sign |
| hyperlinks | Start with HTTP: |
| Media | usually Pictures |
What is unusual about spreadsheet cells is that any type of data can be entered into them. The spreadsheet then works out the type of data that has been entered. In a database table only one type of data is allowed in a given column in a spreadsheet any type of data can go anywhere.
It is important to understand the difference between how a cell is formatted and what it contains. A good example of this is in dates. THe cell may show 18 February 1982 but it actually contains the number 30000 as this is the number of days from 1st January 1900 to that day. Cells that contain formulas show the result of the formula. A cell that is formatted to percent may display the value 50% but it will contain the value 0.5. If the cell is set to show only 2 decimal places and contains the formula =1/3 (a third) it will show 0.33 but contain the value 0.33333333333333 (only 15 decimal places are allowed in Excel).
© LEV
