Using spreadsheets

Fantasy football

You are going to use the Schools Fantasy League’s database of players to pick your perfect football team!

To create the best team you have to have an eye for talent and a great tactical mind! But even the best managers have to stick to a budget.

You are going to use a spreadsheet to keep a record of your team and to help make sure that you don’t go over budget.

But what is a spreadsheet?

1. They are used to record and present data

2. They can perform calculations

3. They can create graphs and charts using the data entered.

The program most commonly used to create spreadsheets is Windows Excel. This is what you will be using to keep a record of your team.

Spreadsheets have three main functions:

Getting started

• Open the Excel spreadsheet named Fantasy Football Team Spreadsheet.

• Once you have picked your players add them to your spreadsheet including their name, position and price in the correct column.

The wonders of formulae You can use Excel to make calculations. To do this you

have to enter a formula.

1. All formulae have to start with an equals sign.

The wonders of formulae• Now choose cells whose value you want to use in the

formula.• Make sure any cells used in a formulae only contain

numbers.2. When you select a cell to be part of a formula it will be highlighted by a coloured box.

The wonders of formulae• To calculate the total price of the fullbacks in this team

you need to add together the prices in cells D4 and D5.

• Therefore the formula would be:

• This comes to £12.5 million.

• If either of the prices in D4 or D5 were changed the ‘Fullback Total’ would automatically update to reflect the change.

=D5+D4

The wonders of formulae• You can use a formula to work out how much you have

spent on your team in total.• The formula for this team would be:

=D3+D4+D5+D6+D7+D8+D9+D10+D11+D12+D13

Task 1• Use a formula to work out how much your team is worth.

• Remember to include all of your players.

Using AutoSum• Excel has a special trick up its sleeve to help you add

up how much your team is worth.• It’s called ‘AutoSum’.

1. Click on the cell containing your first price.

2. Now drag down to select all of the price cells, finishing in the cell where you want your total to show.

Using AutoSum

3. Now click on the AutoSum button.

This will automatically add all of the numbers in those cells together.

Using AutoSum

4. Every time you add or change a number in the selected cells the total will automatically update

Using Autosum

Each column is identified by a letter

Each row is identified by a number

Using AutoSum

This means that each cell can be identified by a letter and a number (e.g. C7).

Using AutoSum

1. Check which cells are included in your total by selecting the total cell.

2.The formula bar will tell you which cells are included in the sum (in this case D3 to D13).

More formulae• You can also use formula to carry out more complex calculations.

• For example if you wanted to work out how much your team was worth minus the fullbacks the formula would be:

= Total - (Full Back + Full Back)

Or:

=D14-(D4+D5)

Task 2

1. How much are your strikers worth?

2. How much is your team’s back 5 worth (goal keeper, full-backs and centre-backs)?

3. How much is your whole team excluding your midfield worth?

4. How much is remaining from the initial budget of £70 million.

Sorting your data1. You can also use Excel to sort your data.

2. This could be used to organise your players alphabetically or by price.

1. Select all of the rows and columns for the data you want to sort.

NOTE you have to select all of the data columns not just the column containing the factor you want to sort by.

Sorting your data

2. Now click on the data button in the menu bar and select the sort function.

Sorting your data

3. Choose which factor you would like to sort by (position, players name or price).

4. Decide if you would like your data sorted ascending (from bottom to top) or descending (from top to bottom).

Sorting your data

1. Sort by player name ascending

2. Sort by price descending

3. Sort by position ascending.

Carry out the following operations on your team spreadsheet:

Quick Quiz

1. Where can you find the ‘AutoSum’ button?

2. What is the name given to one of the squares in an Excel spreadsheet?

3. Which menu contains the ‘sort’ function?

4. What must an Excel formula begin with?

Quick Quiz

The answers are:

1. Where can you find the ‘autosum’ button? On the right hand side of the standard toolbar

2. What is the name given to one of the squares in an Excel spreadsheet? A cell

3. Which menu contains the ‘sort’ function? The data menu

4. What must an Excel formula begin with? It has to start with an = sign.