Calculated fields in Excel - Cell-by-Cell Formula Trace

Sample Data

This table shows products with their price and quantity sold. The 'Total' column will calculate the total sales for each product by multiplying price by quantity.

Cell	Value
A1	Product
B1	Price
C1	Quantity
D1	Total
A2	Apple
B2	2
C2	5
D2
A3	Banana
B3	1
C3	8
D3
A4	Orange
B4	3
C4	4
D4

Formula Trace

=B2*C2

Step 1: B2

Step 2: C2

Step 3: 2 * 5

Cell Reference Map

    A       B       C       D
1 |Product| Price |Quantity| Total 
2 | Apple |   2   |   5    |  ->  
3 |Banana |   1   |   8    |      
4 |Orange |   3   |   4    |      

The formula in D2 uses cells B2 (Price) and C2 (Quantity) to calculate the total sales for Apple.

Result

    A       B       C       D
1 |Product| Price |Quantity| Total 
2 | Apple |   2   |   5    |  10   
3 |Banana |   1   |   8    |       
4 |Orange |   3   |   4    |       

The 'Total' column in D2 shows 10, which is the result of multiplying price (2) by quantity (5) for Apple.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What does the formula =B2*C2 calculate?

A Sum of price and quantity

B Total sales for the product in row 2

C Difference between price and quantity

D Price multiplied by quantity in row 3

Key Result

Calculated fields multiply related numeric columns to create a new value (e.g., Price * Quantity).