10 Excel and Google Sheets formulas that save hours

Most spreadsheet work is the same few tasks: find a value, add up by condition, count, clean up text, build a list. Ten formulas cover nearly all of it, and every one of them works in both Excel (Microsoft 365) and Google Sheets.

In the examples, column A holds client names, B holds the order date, C the city and D the amount.

Finding and checking

1. XLOOKUP: find a value in another table

=XLOOKUP("Anna", A:A, D:D) returns the amount from column D for the row where column A is "Anna". It replaces the older VLOOKUP and works in any direction.

2. IFERROR: hide errors

=IFERROR(XLOOKUP("Anna", A:A, D:D), "not found") shows "not found" instead of an error when there is no match.

3. IF: choose by condition

=IF(D2>1000, "large", "regular") labels each order by its amount.

Adding up and counting

4. SUMIFS: sum by one or more conditions

=SUMIFS(D:D, C:C, "Berlin") adds up all amounts for Berlin. Add more pairs for more conditions: =SUMIFS(D:D, C:C, "Berlin", B:B, ">=2026-01-01").

5. COUNTIFS: count by conditions

=COUNTIFS(C:C, "Berlin", D:D, ">1000") counts the large orders from Berlin.

Lists and filters

6. UNIQUE: a list without duplicates

=UNIQUE(C2:C500) gives every city once. Combine it with SUMIFS to build a quick report by city.

7. FILTER: only the rows you need

=FILTER(A2:D500, D2:D500>1000) shows only the large orders, and updates itself when the data changes.

8. SORT: sort without touching the data

=SORT(A2:D500, 4, FALSE) lists the orders from the largest amount to the smallest.

Text

9. TRIM: remove extra spaces

=TRIM(A2) removes spaces at the start and end and double spaces inside. Extra spaces are the most common reason lookups fail.

10. TEXTJOIN: join values into one cell

=TEXTJOIN(", ", TRUE, C2:C10) joins the cities into one line, separated by commas, skipping empty cells.

Two things to know

• In some language versions of Excel the function names are translated, and in some regional settings formulas use semicolons instead of commas between arguments. The logic stays the same.
• Use whole columns (A:A) for small tables, and exact ranges (A2:A500) for large ones: the sheet calculates faster.

In short

These ten formulas replace hours of manual copying, sorting and counting. If your task is more complex, or you need a ready template, order spreadsheet formulas: you describe the task and attach your table, and get working formulas with instructions, or a full template with a script. Payment is released only after you approve the work.