CIVL 1011

Introduction to Civil Engineering Introduction to Excel

Starting Excel
In the BCIT computer labs, start Microsoft Excel by following
the path shown in the figure.

All work you do in the BCIT labs will be saved in a folder called
“Work” on the individual computer’s hard drive. This folder
will either be on the C:\ drive or the D:\ drive of the computer
you are working at.

Saving Files
At the end of your tutorial session, you must take with you
electronic copies of all files you wish to save. The Work
folder is available to any student that logs on to that
computer and may be wiped clean by anyone. In fact, you
should empty it before you start and before you leave.

You can take your files with you in any of these ways:

1. Copy to a USB flash storage device

2. Burn to a CD (not all lab computers are equipped with CD burners)
3. E-mail the file(s) to yourself as attachments for later retrieval
4. Save to your PersonalFiles (accessible via Internet - see below)

Network Drives
When you log on to BCIT lab computers, several drives are “mapped” to you, based on your
BCIT ID.

Your mapped drives include ShareIn (drive I) and ShareOut (drive J), and your Personal Files
space (drive H). You can locate all your mapped drives by opening My Computer, or from the
Save As and File > Open windows in any software application.

The file organization of both ShareIn and ShareOut is the same. There is a folder for each
course type (e.g. CIVL, BLAW, ELEX etc). Within each course type folder are sub-folders for each
course number (e.g. 3730, 1200, 4515, etc.)

 The ShareIn drive allows students to submit assignments to sub-folders associated with
their course. Note that files must be copied into ShareIn, not saved directly into a
ShareIn sub-folder.
 The ShareOut drive allows faculty to post documents in sub-folders associated with their
course and students may download these documents.

To ensure that your space remains secure:

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 make sure you log off lab computers when you leave
 never share your password

More Information
You can get help with using computer labs, PersonalFiles, and ShareIn/ShareOut by

 going to the Student Resources tab on my.BCIT.ca (see the left side of the page)
 clicking on the Knowledge Base icon on a lab computer or on the my.BCIT.ca home page.

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Fundamental Spreadsheet Concepts

A spreadsheet program, such as Excel, uses a tabular format (matrix) for data manipulation and
presentation.

An Excel file or spreadsheet is called a workbook, which consists of a number of individual

worksheets. Excel 2013 supports spreadsheets up to 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns in size.
The number of worksheets it can handle in one workbook is limited only by the computer’s
memory.

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 Columns in the worksheet are identified by letters and rows are identified by positive
integers.
 Individual cells in the worksheet are identified by their column and row location. For
example, C3.
 Each cell can contain a label or a value. A value can be either a number or a formula.

Example:

B2: = 4 * A2

A B

1 Test

2 9 36

A1:

A2:

B2:

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Spreadsheet Conventions
1. When a cell entry is changed, each expression in the entire worksheet is recalculated
automatically. This updating is done row-by-row, or column-by-column, as specified by the
user.

2. Formulas are evaluated using the usual operator precedence relations.

For example, returns the value

Mathematical expressions are unambiguous if parentheses are used:

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3. A cell entry beginning with a letter is treated as a label.

For example, is a label.

is a formula.

4. A cell entry beginning with a number is treated as a value.

For example, is a value.

To make it a label, use the Format Cells dialogue box to change the value to text.

5. If a formula refers to a blank cell this cell is assumed to contain a zero value.

Understanding Ranges
A range consists of one or more cells forming a rectangular array.

A range may be

1. A single cell

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2. A row of cells

3. A column of cells

4. A block of cells

The notation is referred to as a range address.

Relative & Absolute Cell Reference

One of the powerful features of a spreadsheet program is the ability to replicate or copy a
range of cells easily.

A relative cell reference is a cell or range of cells in a formula that the spreadsheet program
interprets as a location relative to the current cell.

Example: Relative Reference

Formulas Values

A A

1 1 1 1

2 = 1 + A1 2 2

3 3

4 4

5 5

6 6

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An absolute cell reference is a cell address that always refers to the same cell, even if the
formula is copied to a new location.

Example: Absolute Reference

Formulas Values

A A

1 1 1 1

2 = 1 + $A$1 2 2

3 3

4 4

5 5

6 6

Example: Mixed Relative and Absolute Cell References

Cell G4 contains the formula =$B$4+C4+D$4+$E4

The formula is then copied to cells G5, G6 and H6 with the following results:

Formula in cell G5

Formula in cell G6

Formula in cell H6

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A B C D E F G H

4 10 20 30 40

5 50 60 70 80

6 90 100 110 120

Named Cells and Ranges

It is often convenient to identify a cell by a name instead of using a generic cell reference.

An empty cell can be named – the name is associated with that cell and by extension whatever
the contents of that cell are whether empty, a label or a value (number or formula)

For example, if cell B10 contained the value for a constant, such as the yield stress of steel Fy,
then formulas which use this quantity would be more obvious if the name Fy was used in place
of $B$10. Then, if another cell were named Area, a descriptive formula for yield force could be
written as = Fy * Area

Note that all names have a scope, either to a specific worksheet (also called the local worksheet
level) or to the entire workbook (also called the global workbook level). The scope of a name is
the location within which the name is recognized without qualification. A name must always be
unique within its scope.

Local Scope: If the scope for a named cell is local then there is no restriction on using that same
name for another cell on any other another worksheet in the workbook (provided the scope
remains local).

Global Scope: If the scope for a named cell is global then that name can only be defined once
for the entire workbook. No matter what worksheet you are working with in the workbook the
name will always refer back to the same cell on the worksheet where the name was originally
defined.

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Naming a cell can be accomplished by using a number of different methods:

1. The name box on the formula bar (global scope by default)

Name box

Once a global name has been defined Excel will not permit the name to be used to
define another cell

2. The New Name dialogue box option (Shown below) found in the defined names section
of the Formulas ribbon (Scope can be defined)

3. Through the name manager option found in the defined names section of the Formulas
ribbon (Scope can be defined for new entries only)

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4. By right clicking a spreadsheet cell and selecting define name option from the drop
down list (another way to access the New Names dialogue box)

Managing named cells:

Note that once a scope selection for a name has been made it cannot be changed without
deleting the name and reinserting it with the changed scope. Why does excel restrict you this
way?

There are essentially two ways to find out whether cells have a name associated with them.

1) Select the cell and check the name box to see whether a name has been assigned. (A tedious
time consuming process)

2) Refer to the name manger for a complete listing of all named cells in the workbook.

In the name manager you can edit, and delete existing name assigned to cells and add new
names to unnamed cells, however, you cannot as previously mentioned change the scope of an
existing name (if you try to change the scope of an existing name in name manager using the
edit selection you will find that the scope option is greyed out indicating that it is disabled).

Naming practices

Always confirm that the name that you have selected for a cell has actually been accepted.
Excel only assigns the name once “enter” has been selected.

Also, bear in mind that Excel has a number of predefined names that are reserved that it will
not allow the user to define (for example: c, n). Also cell addresses (example B52) will not be
accepted as cell names

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Functions
An Excel function is a predefined routine that performs a series of operations or calculations.
Excel contains over 300 functions. To solve engineering problems the Mathematical, Statistical
and Logical functions within Excel are very useful. Functions are executed within Excel
formulas.

General format: FUNCTION(arguments)

where: FUNCTION is the name of the Excel library function

arguments represents the information the function requires to execute its

task (for a given function the list of arguments is contained
within brackets)

Examples: Mathematical Functions

1. Constant Functions
(no arguments required)

PI()

2. Single-Argument Functions
(V = value)

SQRT(V)

EXP(V)

SIN(V)

3. Multiple-Argument Functions
(L = list: e.g. A1:A8 or K1, K3, G5)

SUM(L)

MAX(L)

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A complete list of available functions can be obtained by clicking on the Insert Function
command which is immediately left of the formula bar and can also be found in the Function
Library group on the Formulas tab.

Once you select your function, the Function Wizard will show you how to use it.

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