EXCEL FUNCTIONS-INFO

INTRODUCTION

INFO FUNCTION comes under the INFORMATION category in Excel.INFO FUNCTION gives us the option of getting many important information about the current operating environment e.g. current OS, DIRECTORY ETC.

The INFO functions provides the information about the operating system such as , current directory of the file in which we are working, number of worksheets in the current workbook, the visible first cell’s address, operating system’s version, current recalculation mode, release version of ms excel, system (mac or windows) etc.

This kind of information can be used if we need the system information for some process.

But there is always a safety warning issued with the use of this FUNCTION as it gives the information about the system which can be misused. so always be cautious while using this function.

PURPOSE OF INFO FUNCTION IN EXCEL

INFO FUNCTION RETURNS THE INFORMATION ABOUT THE CURRENT OPERATING ENVIRONMENT I.E. FEW LISTED INFORMATION ABOUT THE CURRENT SYSTEM OR OPERATING SYSTEM.

PREREQUISITES TO LEARN INFO

THERE ARE A FEW PREREQUISITES WHICH WILL ENABLE YOU TO UNDERSTAND THIS FUNCTION IN A BETTER WAY.

Basic understanding of how to use a formula or function.
Basic understanding of rows and columns in Excel.
Of course, Excel software.

Helpful links for the prerequisites mentioned above

What Excel does? How to use formula in Excel?

SYNTAX: INFO FUNCTION

The Syntax for the function is

=INFO(INFORMATION TYPE)

INFORMATION TYPE Type of information needed. Different types of information available are enlisted in next section.

INFORMATION TYPE AVAILABLE FOR INFO FUNCTION

FOLLOWING ARE THE CODES WHICH ARE RETURNED WHEN A CELL HAS ANY FORMAT FROM THE BUILT IN NUMBER FORMATS IN EXCEL.

“directory” Path of the current directory or folder.”numfile” Number of active worksheets in the open workbooks.”origin” Returns the absolute cell reference of the top and leftmost cell visible in the window, based on the current scrolling

position, as text prepended with “$A:”. This value is intended for for Lotus 1-2-3 release 3.x compatibility. The actual value returned depends on the current reference style setting. Using D9 as an example, the return value would
be:

A1 reference style “$A:$D$9”.
R1C1 reference style “$A:R9C4”

“osversion” Current operating system version, as text.”recalc” Current recalculation mode; returns “Automatic” or “Manual”.”release” Version of Microsoft Excel, as text.”system” Name of the operating environment:

Macintosh = “mac”
Windows = “pcdos”

EXAMPLE:INFO FUNCTION IN EXCEL

DATA SAMPLE

We will try to use Cell function with different types of attributes. The INFO function will return the INFORMATION which is asked for.

Let us check the different attributes of H9 TO H15.

For the example,WE’LL CHECK ALL THE INFORMATION AVAILABLE WITH THIS PARTICULAR FUNCTION.THE INFORMATION SOUGHT ISDIRECTORY, NUMFILE, ORIGIN, OSVERSION, RECALC, RELEASE, SYSTEM.

STEPS TO USE INFO FUNCTION (EXAMPLE)

THE INFO FUNCTIONS ARE USED FOR ALL THE ATTRIBUTES AVAILABLE FROM THE CELLS I9 TO I15.

The following functions are used.

=INFO(“DIRECTORY”)

current directory of the working file

=INFO(“NUMFILE”) number of active worksheets

=INFO(“ORIGIN”)

first visible cell i.e. the cells to the upper left of the particular screen.

=INFO(“OSVERSION”) operating system version

=INFO(“RECALC”) recalculation mode.

=INFO(“RELEASE”) release of EXCEL (version of excel)

=INFO(“SYSTEM”) mac or pc (pcdos for WINDOWS and mac for MACINTOSH)