Excel and Google Sheets Formulas

Formulas are where spreadsheets become powerful - and where many people get stuck. ChatGPT can write, explain, and debug formulas for you.

Getting Formula Help

Describe What You Need

Fix a Broken Formula

Common Formula Categories

Lookup Formulas

VLOOKUP / XLOOKUP

Conditional Formulas

IF Statements

Nested IFs

Counting and Summing

Date Formulas

Text Formulas

Advanced Formulas

ARRAYFORMULA (Google Sheets)

SUMPRODUCT

Dynamic Ranges

Formula Debugging

Understanding Errors

Common Error Explanations

Error	Meaning
#VALUE!	Wrong type of data (e.g., math on text)
#REF!	Reference to deleted or invalid cell
#N/A	Lookup couldn't find the value
#DIV/0!	Dividing by zero
#NAME?	Formula name spelled wrong
#NUM!	Invalid numeric value

Tracing Issues

Google Sheets Specific

QUERY Function

IMPORTRANGE

Building Complex Formulas

Step-by-Step Approach

Combining Multiple Formulas

Formula Templates

Sales Commission Calculator

Project Status Indicator

Practice Exercise

Key Takeaways

1. Describe in plain language - You don't need to know formula syntax
2. Provide context - Cell locations, data types, expected results
3. Debug systematically - Break complex formulas into parts
4. Test components - Verify each piece before combining
5. Understand errors - Know what common errors mean
6. Learn patterns - Similar problems use similar formulas
7. Always verify - Test formulas on known data before using

Formula help is one of the highest-value uses of ChatGPT. Next, let's look at creating data summaries and insights.