Microsoft Office

Creating Formulas for Financial Applications 16
Cell Formula Description
F9 =PPMT($B$2*($B$3/12),A9,$B$4,-$B$1) Calculates the principal portion of the periodic payment
G9 =G8+F9 Calculates the cumulative amount applied toward
principal
H9 =H8-F9 Returns the principal balance at the end of the period
Summarizing loan options by using a data table
Excel’s Data Table feature is probably one of the most underutilized tools in Excel. It’s a handy way to summarize
calculations that depend on one or two “changing” cells. In this example, I use a data table to summarize
various loan options. This section describes how to create one-way and two-way data tables.
CROSS-REF
Refer to Chapter 36 for more information about setting up data tables.
ON the CD-ROM
A workbook that demonstrates one- and two-way data tables is available on the companion
CD-ROM. The file is named loan data tables.xlsx.
Creating a one-way data table
A one-way data table shows the results of any number of calculations for different values of a single input
cell.
Figure 16.6 shows a one-way data table (in B10:I13) that displays three calculations (payment amount, total
payments, and total interest) for a loan, using seven interest rates ranging from 7.00 percent to 8.50 percent.
In this example, the input cell is cell B2.
To create this one-way data table, follow these steps:
1. Enter the formulas that return the results for use in the data table. In this example, the formulas
are in B6:B8.
2. Enter various values for a single input cell in successive columns. In this example, the input
value is interest rate, and the values for various interest rates appear in C10:I10.
3. Create a reference to the formula cells in the column to the left of the input values. In this
example, the range B11:B13 contains simple formulas that reference other cells. For example, cell
B11 contains the following formula:
=B6
4. Select the rectangular range that contains the entries from the previous steps. In this example,
select B10:I13.
5. Choose Data ➪ Data Tools ➪ What-If Analysis ➪ Data Table. Excel displays the Data Table
dialog box, shown in Figure 16.7.
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