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Exercise 01 — Introduction to Excel for Data Analytics

Navigation: Exercises Index | Next → Exercise 02 Note: 01 — Introduction to Excel

Before You Start

Read Note 01 first, then come back here.

These exercises are about getting comfortable — opening Excel, moving around the grid, and writing your very first formula. Nothing here can break anything. Open Excel and create a Blank workbook.

Exercise 1.1 — Find Your Way Around

Open a blank workbook and locate each of these by name. Don't change anything yet — just point at them.

  1. The Ribbon at the top. Click through the tabs: Home, Insert, Formulas, Data. Notice the buttons change.
  2. The Name Box (left of the formula bar). Click a few cells and watch it show the address (A1, B7, …).
  3. The Formula Bar (the long box with fx).
  4. The sheet tabs at the bottom. Click the + to add a new sheet.

Tasks: - Click cell C5. What does the Name Box show? - Type D10 into the Name Box and press Enter. Where does the selection jump? - Double-click the Sheet1 tab and rename it to Practice.

Exercise 1.2 — Enter Different Data Types

In a fresh sheet, type the following and watch the alignment of each entry after you press Enter:

Cell Type this
A1 Hello
A2 42
A3 3.14
A4 2026-06-29
A5 TRUE

Questions: - Which entries aligned to the right? Which to the left? Which centered? - Based on alignment, which are numbers, which is text, and which is a date? - What does the alignment tell you about how Excel is interpreting each value?

Why this matters: alignment is a free clue to the data type. A number that lands on the left is secretly text and won't calculate — the single most common beginner bug.

Exercise 1.3 — Build a Tiny Table and Write a Formula

Recreate this little table starting at cell A1 (use Tab to move right, Enter to start a new row):

A B C
1 Product Units Price
2 Apples 50 0.30
3 Bananas 30 0.25
4 Cherries 20 1.10

Now write your first formula:

  1. Click cell D1 and type Revenue.
  2. Click D2 and type: 
    =B2*C2
    Press Enter. What value appears in D2?
  3. Click back on D2 and look at the formula bar. It shows the formula; the cell shows the result. What's the difference?

Test that it's live: - Change B2 from 50 to 100. What happens to D2? Why?

Exercise 1.4 — Navigate Like a Pro

Still in your table:

  1. Click A1, then press Ctrl + ↓. Where does the selection land, and why?
  2. Press Ctrl + ↑ to come back.
  3. Click A1, hold Shift, and press → twice. What got selected?
  4. Click anywhere in the table and press Ctrl + A. What does it select?
  5. Press F2 on cell D2. What mode does the cell enter?

Question: On a spreadsheet with 10,000 rows, how would Ctrl + ↓ save you time?

Exercise 1.5 — Save in Two Formats

  1. Save your workbook with Ctrl + S. Name it intro-practice.xlsx. Note the .xlsx extension.
  2. Now File → Save As and choose CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv). Save it as intro-practice.csv.
  3. Open the .csv file in a plain text editor (Notepad). What do you see? Where did your formula in D2 go — is it the formula or the result?

Questions: - What did the CSV keep, and what did it throw away (formulas? formatting? the Revenue formula vs. its value)? - When would you want a .csv instead of an .xlsx?

Challenge — Test Yourself

Answer without looking back at the note, then check.

  1. What is the difference between a workbook, a worksheet, and a cell?
  2. Every formula must begin with which character?
  3. A number you typed is aligned to the left of its cell. What does that tell you, and why is it a problem?
  4. What does Ctrl + Arrow do?
  5. You save an .xlsx file as .csv. Name two things you lose.

Answers: 1. A workbook is the whole file; a worksheet is one tabbed sheet inside it; a cell is one box in the grid. 2. The equals sign =. 3. Excel is treating the number as text, so it won't be included in calculations like SUM. 4. Jumps to the edge of the current block of data in that direction. 5. Formulas (replaced by their last results), formatting, and all but the active sheet.

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