# Bloomington Tutors | Blog Finite math, K201, calculus, and statistics explained

Apr 23, 2017

## GP9 - Text Functions - LEFT, RIGHT, MID, LEN, FIND, and CONCATENATE

To be honest, Excel's text functions are kind of awkward and limited. Unlike full-blown programming languages like Python and Javascript, you don't have access to regular expressions or standard string functions such as split, join, and replace. Instead, you have to make due with complicated combinations of Excel's LEFT, RIGHT, MID, LEN, FIND, and CONCATENATE formulas to manipulate text.

In this video, we walk you through a common GP9 string (text) manipulation problem that asks you to use these functions to split, format, and rearrange text into more useful representations.

Apr 17, 2017

## GP8 - One- and two-variable data tables and what-if analysis

Even casual Excel users have probably encountered a situation where they wanted to test a formula against a range of possible input values. One way to do this is by simply copying a formula down a column or row of your table. A more structured way of doing this, though, is Excel's Data Tables (What-if Analysis) feature. Most K201 students don't usually have much trouble with figuring out how this feature works, but it can be easy to forget under the pressure of an exam.

Actually, the trickiest thing we cover in this video is defining custom data formats. We're not sure why, but K201 GPs and exams usually like to ask you to create custom data formats as a followup to two-variable data table questions.

Apr 04, 2017

## GP7 - Lookup Functions - VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, MATCH, and INDEX

One of the more powerful features of Excel is its collection of lookup functions, which let you cross-reference tabular data in your spreadsheets. K201 students sometimes find them tricky to master though, especially when it comes to determining when to use a VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, or INDEX-MATCH formula.

In this video for GP7, Dalia goes over examples for each of these formulas - you'll be done in no time!

Mar 30, 2017

## GP6 and GP7 - IF Statements - Simple and Nested

Our last video for GP6 covers Excel's IF formula. We go over some simple use cases (for GP6), as well as some more complicated applications. We'll talk about how IF formulas can be used inside another IF formula ("nested IFs") along with the AND and OR boolean functions to build decision trees.

Nested IF statements tend to give K201 students a lot of trouble, so we hope this video can help clear things up a bit!

In this video, we cover some of the other common financial formulas that come up in K201's Excel unit. Examples include comparing investment options using the PV (present value) function, planning a college fund with the NPER formula, and computing the annual interest rate on a known payoff amount for an investment with RATE.