Ian Jamieson

Excel users often get the two things mixed so please allow me to briefly explain the difference between an Excel Function vs an Excel Formula.

A Formula in Excel looks like =A1+A2 or 365*10

These simple formulas can be useful to do some maths very quickly.

A Function does some magic to save you time and effort. Functions streamline the process of creating a calculation – they do all the heavy lifting for us.

Examples of functions are:

• SUM
• VLOOKUP
• IFS

Excel offers hundreds of functions. Each one provides a slightly different service to power users.

Although there are hundreds of formulas available to users, you’ll find that for your own job you’ll only ever use 20 or so functions 99% of the time. It’s just good to know that there are plenty more specialised functions available when you need to do something different.

Update: here’s a list of all the current Excel functions available – 500+

A formula can contain many functions, for example =IFERROR(VLOOKUP,A2,B1:C25,2,FALSE),”Check”)

Conclusion

Just to recap, a formula is any calculation in Excel.

=(B2*B3)-B4 is a formula

A function is a pre-defined calculation.
=AVERAGE(A1:D20) is a formula containing a function i.e. AVERAGE

Excel users use the terms function and formula interchangeably. Please don’t get bogged down trying to use the correct term. Everyone will understand what you mean. I just wanted to quickly explain the difference as Excelers can get confused by the mixed-use.