18. Using What-If, Scenario Manager, Goal Seek, and Solver

When Dan Bricklin invented VisiCalc in 1979, he was trying to come up with a tool that would let him quickly recalculate his MBA school case studies. Thirty-five years later, spreadsheets are still used for the same functionality.

Newer spreadsheet tools such as Goal Seek and an improved Solver enable you to back directly into the assumptions that lead to a solution. This chapter discusses some of Excel 2016’s features that are helpful when you are trying to find a specific answer.

Using What-If

After you have set up a model in Excel, you can make copies of the model side by side and then change the various input variables to test their impact on the final result. Because this type of ...

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