Nowadays, one of the most popular tools for complex computing is Microsoft Excel. Its wide functionality allows you to simplify the solution of many problems, which previously had to spend a lot of time. Today we will look at how to multiply cells in Excel in large quantities.
Multiplication in Excel
Before you figure out how to multiply numbers in Excel , it’s worth noting the wide functionality of the program, which allows you to work both with explicit numbers and using cells that contain the numbers themselves and the formulas that define them. In order to multiply one or several cells by a number or other cells, it is necessary to indicate these sheet elements in the formula bar after the equal sign or record the value yourself.
Multiply cells by cell
Next, it’s worth understanding the principle of how to multiply a cell by a cell in Excel and what problems you may encounter in the process. To multiply the values of two cells, it is necessary to write the following construction in the formula bar: "= A * B", where "A" and "B" are links to the corresponding elements of the Excel sheet, that is, the cell.
Having received the result, it may be necessary to create a copy of it, and often users, without hesitation, simply copy the value of this cell, pasting it into another. However, with this approach, there will be a change in the corresponding links pointing to the factors. In order to avoid such an error, you should either in the cell where you want to copy the result, enter a link to the cell to be copied, or "fix" the address of its factors with the "$" sign. The dollar sign stores the value of the link by the parameter following it - that is, the link $ A4 will always refer to column A, A $ 4 - to the fourth row, and $ A $ 4 - only to cell A4. In other words, fixing a cell is creating an absolute reference to it.
Column and row multiplication
Using the algorithm for fixing the cell address, you can go directly to how to multiply a column by column or row by row in Excel. In order not to waste time writing a huge formula, you can simply use the property of changing the cell link when transferring to a new pointer address. That is, if you need to multiply the values in two columns in pairs, it is enough to write the multiplication formula for the first pair of cells, after which, holding the black plus sign that appears in the lower right corner, stretch the result down along all the values of the multiplier columns.
In order to achieve a similar result for the rows, it is only necessary to stretch the result along the corresponding rows. It is worth noting: in order to avoid a shift when further copying the results, you need to fix the specified column or row in the formula - then you can avoid errors in the calculation.
Multiplying a Row or Column by a Cell
Having understood how to multiply a column by a column or a row by a row in Excel, it’s worth stopping at one specific operation - multiplying a cell by a row or column. If during multiplication we use the same algorithm of actions as in the case of column multiplication, then as a result only the value of the first row of this column will be multiplied, since the cell address will change by one position with each descent of the cell.
To avoid this, it is necessary to fix either the row number of the multiplied cell, or its whole - in this case it will be possible to use its value for several columns. In the case of multiplying a row by some cell, it is enough to fix the letter of the column in which it is located, or make both parameters of the cell address constant.
How to multiply all numbers in a row or column
Sometimes in "Excel" you need to perform an operation similar to the total amount, only by performing the multiplication action. However, there is no special automatic procedure for this, so many, not knowing how to multiply the numbers of one column or row between themselves in Excel, do this explicitly, writing down the action for each cell. In fact, there is an operation in the program that can help solve the problem of how to multiply the numbers in Excel with each other several times faster.
In order to multiply a certain range of cells among themselves, it is enough to select an operation with the name "PRODUCT" in the "Insert Function" menu. As arguments to this function, you must specify the cells that must be multiplied by each other, it can be either columns, rows, cells, or whole arrays. It is worth noting that if there is an empty cell in the specified range, the multiplication result will not be zero - in this case, the program will ignore this cell, that is, equate the empty value to one.
Summary
Having figured out how to multiply in Excel, you can implement quite complex documents, including economic reports and estimates. Most arithmetic operations can be performed in a similar way, but for some it is worth considering the specifics of their implementation, as well as the format of the cells. So, for example, when dividing a cell by a cell, if there is no value in one of them, the result will be a division by zero error.