Excel PracticePRODUCT practice
Growth rates compound. Adding them is wrong, and PRODUCT is the one-line way to chain them.
What this lesson covers
PRODUCT multiplies every number it is given, so a single range covers a whole column.
3 exercises in this lesson
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Task 1 · cell E10
Multiply the units in C2 by the units in C3.
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Task 2 · cell E10
Multiply every unit figure from C2 to C4.
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Task 3 · cell E10
Multiply the units in C2 by the unit price in D2.
Using PRODUCT at work
The syntax is PRODUCT(number1, …). Once it is in your hands, the work it replaces is the kind of thing that used to mean scrolling a column and hoping you did not miss a row.
This is lesson 35 of 37. It takes a few minutes, and the exercises are marked the moment you submit rather than at the end.
Where people usually slip
- Ranges drift. Pointing at three cells when the data has six is the single most common cause of a wrong total, and it is invisible because the answer still looks plausible.
- Copying breaks a reference. Relative references shift when a formula is copied. If a value should stay put, lock it with dollar signs.
- The number is right, the method is not. Typing a total by hand produces the right answer once. A formula produces it again when the data changes, which is the actual skill.
How this is marked
Each exercise is checked against the result the formula should produce, and then re-run on a different set of numbers. A hardcoded answer passes the first check and fails the second, so it is rejected. That second pass is the part that makes the practice stick.