Excel II

In a spreadsheet there are three basic types of data that can be entered.

• Labels - (text with no numerical value)
• Constants - (just a number -- constant value)
• Formulas* - (a mathematical equation used to calculate)

Data types
LABEL - Name or Wage or Days - anything that is just text
CONSTANT - 5 or 3.75 or -7.4 - any number
FORMULA - =5+3 or = 8*5+3 - math equation
*ALL formulas MUST begin with an equal sign (=).

Labels are text entries. They do not have a value associated with them. We typically use labels to identify what we are talking about.
In this example: the labels are

• computer ledger
• car loan
• interest
• # of payments
• Monthly Pmt.

Again, we use labels to help identify what we are talking about. The labels are NOT for the computer but rather for US so we can clarify what we are doing.

Constants are entries that have a specific fixed value. If someone asks you how old you are, you would answer with a specific answer. Sure, other people will have different answers, but it is a fixed value for each person.

In our example: the constants are
$12,000
9.6%
60

As you can see from these examples there may be different types of numbers. Sometimes constants are referring to dollars, sometimes referring to percentages, and other times referring to a number of items (in this case 60 months).These are typed into the computer with just the numbers and are changed to display their type of number by formatting (we will talk about this later). Again, we use constants to enter FIXED number data.