Excel Beginners

Data Types and Formatting: Step 2 To Mastering Spreadsheets

What goes in must come out

Inputs Versus Outputs

When using Excel, you will generally be dealing with two forms of information. Inputs and outputs. Simply put, an input is something which you or another system provides as information, and an output is something which the system returns to you or another system for further modification.

Inputs

Typing something into a cell, whether it is the name of a person, the current date, or the amount in your bank account, these are all inputs. They represent information which is being provided to Excel, and they are static. Meaning that they are fixed and unless replaced by a user, the cell they are in can not be modified by Excel.

The same is true for information which has been copied and pasted from other sources. These other sources also include other Excel sheets.

A second, and important, aspect of inputs is that they are used as source information to an output. By this logic, certain outputs are also inputs!

Outputs

The result of any manipulations done by the system on an input. In the case of Excel, outputs are the result of the use of a formula or tool on a set of information. It could be something small and non-destructive like sorting information alphabetically, or something which modifies data in a more permanent way like the Text To Columns tool.

Manipulations can even be something as simple as transferring the value of an input from one cell to another without making any modifications to it.

Outputs are not necessarily the final stage of an intended modification, in reality there can be multiple stages of outputs which lead up to a final output. Every stage leading up to the final output will have its own output that is treated as an input for the subsequent stage.

Outputs That Are Also Inputs

An example of an output being used as an input would be calculating the after-tax value of an item. The first input is the value of the product itself pre-tax ($10), your local tax rate is your second input (10%). The calculated dollar value of this tax would be your first output ($1), and calculating your final price at the register would result in your second output ($11).

In this situation, the first output is also an input for a later step of the calculations required for that transaction.