Google Sheets: Functions, Formulas and Tutorials

Free Google Sheets tutorials from an Excel MVP: clear explanations of the most-used functions, with examples you can copy, plus what's different if you're coming from Excel.

Function guides10, and growing
ExamplesIndian names, cities and ₹ amounts
Coming from Excel?See the differences below

Google Sheets functions

Function What it does
QUERY Filter, sort and total with SQL-like words
IMPORTRANGE Pull data from another file
ARRAYFORMULA One formula for a whole column
VLOOKUP Find a value in a table
FILTER Return rows that meet conditions
UNIQUE Remove duplicates with a formula
SPLIT Split text into columns
SORT Sort with a formula
IF Return one value or another
SUMIF Add numbers that meet a condition

Only in Google Sheets

These have no direct Excel equivalent and are worth learning first:

  • QUERY: a whole report in one formula.
  • IMPORTRANGE: live data from another file.
  • ARRAYFORMULA: fill a column with one formula.
  • COUNTUNIQUE, SORTN, GOOGLEFINANCE, GOOGLETRANSLATE and SPARKLINE: guides coming soon.

Coming from Excel?

Excel Google Sheets
Dynamic arrays spill automatically Most range calculations need ARRAYFORMULA
SORT(range, 3, -1) SORT(range, 3, FALSE)
FILTER(range, include, if_empty) FILTER(range, condition1, condition2, …), no if_empty
TEXTSPLIT SPLIT, which splits at each character unless you add FALSE
Power Query QUERY and IMPORTRANGE
VBA macros Apps Script

More Google Sheets on xlncad

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