Exploring the Syntax of Functions

Worksheet functions have two parts: the name of the function and the argument(s) that follow. Function names—such as SUM and AVERAGE—describe the operation that the function performs. Arguments specify the values or cells to be used by the function. For example, the function ROUND has the following syntax: =ROUND(number, num_digits) as in the formula =ROUND(M30,2). The M30 is a cell reference entered as the number argument— the value to be rounded. The 2 is the num_digits argument. The result of this function is a number (whatever M30 happens to be) rounded to two decimal places.

Parentheses surround function arguments. The opening parenthesis must appear immediately after the name of the function. If you add a ...

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