About this site

Every function page explains what the function does, when to reach for it, how Excel evaluates it, and the mistakes people make. Four worked examples per function rise from a first encounter to an expert construction.

The examples come from audit work: XAF auditfile extracts, trial balances, aging lists, cut-off testing and journal entries. The functions behave the same anywhere, so the pages are useful outside audit too.

How the examples are checked

Every result is worked out by hand in the step-by-step walkthrough, then checked by the HyperFormula engine or LibreOffice where they can run the formula.

Otherwise a second reviewer recomputes the result independently and checks the formula against Microsoft's documentation; an example still waiting for a check carries the badge "Result not yet verified".

What "Under review" means

A page tagged "Under review" is new: it is complete and readable, but the site owner has not signed it off yet.

Try the formula on your own data before you rely on it; the tag disappears once the page is signed off.

Formula separators

Formulas are shown in one of two formats. The format button in the header switches between them, and the choice is remembered per language.

  • , . a comma between arguments and a full stop for decimals, as in US or UK Excel. English pages start with this format.
  • ; , a semicolon between arguments and a decimal comma, as in a Dutch regional setting. Dutch pages start with this format.

Function names follow the language of the page. Formulas you copy keep the format you see.

Trademarks and independence

DivZero is an independent training site and is not affiliated with Microsoft. Excel is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Explanations and examples are our own, and the links to Microsoft documentation lead to Microsoft's own pages.

Privacy

This site uses no cookies, accounts, advertising or analytics tools, and no page loads anything from another website: the fonts, scripts and images all come from this site itself.

Three small settings are stored in your browser (localStorage) so the site remembers your choices. The keys fmt-en and fmt-nl hold the formula format you picked for each language, and lang holds the language you picked. They stay on your device and are never sent to us. Clearing the site data in your browser removes them.

The site is hosted by Cloudflare. Like any web host, Cloudflare processes technical request data such as your IP address, the page you ask for and the time, and keeps server logs. We add no tracking tools of our own.

When you send us an email, for feedback or an enquiry, we use your address and your message only to answer you.

Under the AVG (the Dutch name for the GDPR) you have the right to access, correct and delete personal data about you, to object to its use and to ask for it to be restricted. Write to conroybotes@gmail.com to use these rights. You can also complain to the Dutch data protection authority, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl).

Who runs this

DivZero is run by Roy Botes.

The examples on this site are teaching material. They are not audit, accounting or tax advice: check a result against your own data and your firm's methodology before you rely on it.

Feedback and corrections

Found a wrong result, an unclear sentence or a Dutch phrase that nobody would say? Please tell us, and mention the page. Corrections are listed on the What's new page.

Send feedback by email (conroybotes@gmail.com)

See all updates and corrections

Last updated: 23 October 2026