Excel Productivity Tips and Tricks

Spreadsheets are awesome for data junkies like me. I wanted to log the tips and tricks here and keep adding to this list. 

 1. Finding multiple values in a column. 

We can insert pivot tables and determine count or group by when more than one column exists in the table, however how can we just find in one column if a value is repeated ? The Remove Duplicates feature will remove the multiple values but won't identify those. To resolve this, use a COUNTIF function. Add one more column and the formula COUNTIF(A:A,A2) Where A is the column having the values and assuming we are begining from row 2. 

 2. Excel shows the formula text instead of the value or result. 

Aaha .. this is generally because of the format of the column is set to Text (or anything other than Generic). So set it back to Generic. Reset the formula by deleting the equal sign = and entering it again. This should re-evaluate the formula.