Wild & Weird Functions in Excel 2007

June 18, 2007

There are 351 functions in Excel. Sure, everyone uses SUM or AVERAGE, but here are some unusual ones:

CONVERT

Use CONVERT to convert from one unit of measurement to another.

Check out Excel help for the complete list of abbreviations, but here are several examples:

ROMAN

Use ROMAN to obscure bad financial news!

NETWORKDAYS

Figure out number of work days elapsed

Use NetWorkdays to calculate the number of work days between two dates. This function can even factor in the company holidays (see G2:G10).

WORKDAYS

When does probationary employment end?

Similar to NETWORKDAYS, the WORKDAYS function will find a date in the future.

PMT

Calculate a car payment with Excel

Use the PMT function:

While writing Special Edition Using Excel 2007, there were two obscure functions that didn't seem to have a use. FactDouble turned out to be good for Texas Hold-em Probabilities: