POWER in Excel (Table of Contents)
POWER in Excel
I still remember the days when my maths teacher beat me almost every day for not remembering the SQUARE ROOT of numbers. I literally cried when maths period is on the way. There are many instances where I bunked the math class just to get away from those beatings from my maths teacher.
Ok, now I need not to remember all those SQUARE ROOTS; instead, I can rely on a beautiful function called the POWER Function.
POWER function helps in raising the number to another number of times to the power.
For example: What is the value of 5 to the square of 3? The answer is 5*5*5 = 125.
POWER Formula in Excel
Below is the POWER Formula:
The Power Function includes two parameters, and both are required arguments.
- Number: The number you need to raise the power, i.e. the base number of any real number.
- Power: The number of times you need to raise the base number. It is the exponent to raise the base number.
The symbol or operator ^ (caret operator) acts as an exponent. For example: 6^2 = 36. This is not 6 is multiplied by 2 rather 6 * 6 = 36. Six is multiplied by the six itself twice.
The simple equation is 5 * 5 * 5 * 5 = 625
How to Use the POWER Function in Excel?
This POWER function is very simple easy to use. Let us now see how to use the POWER Function with the help of some examples.
Example #1
Assume you have base numbers from A2:A6 and the power number (exponential numbers) from B2:B6. Show the power of values in column A by using power numbers in column B.
Apply Power formula in the cell C2
The answer will be:
Drag and drop the formula to other cells.
- The first value is base number 8 is raised to the power number 3. i.e. 8 cube. =8*8*8 = 512.
Secondly, base number 11 is raised to the power number 6, i.e. 11 is multiplied 6 times to the 11 itself. =11 * 11* 11* 11* 11* 11 = 17, 71,561. Similarly, all the values have resulted in that way.
Example #2
Use the same data from the above example. Instead of using the POWER Function, we use the caret operator (^) to do the calculation. The results will be the same, though.
Apply formula in the cell H2
The answer will be:
Drag and drop the formula to other cells.
Example #3
Using POWER Function along with other functions. From the below data, raise all the even numbers power by 2; if the number is not even, then raise the power by 5.
Here, first, we need to test whether the number is even or not. If the number found, raise the power by 2; if not, raise the power by 5.
This type of problem can be addressed by using the IF condition to test whether the number is even or not.
Apply formula in cell B2.
The answer will be:
Drag and drop the formula to other cells.
- IF condition tests whether the supplied number is equal to an even number or not. =IF(A2=EVEN(A2),
- If the IF logic is true then the POWER function will raise the power by 2. =POWER(A2,2),
- If the IF logic is false, then the POWER function will raise the power by 5. =POWER(A2,5),
POWER Function in VBA
In VBA, also we can use the POWER function. However, the thing is, we do not get to see many of these live examples in our day-to-day life.
Step 1: Open your VBA editor (ALT + F11).
Step 2: Go to insert and insert Module. This would instantly create a new module to write our code for the POWER function.
Step 3: Copy and paste the below code inside the new module.
Sub Power_Function_Example ()
Dim My_Result As String
My_Result = Application.WorksheetFunction.Power(6, 3)
MsgBox My_Result
End Sub
Now your window should look like the one below one.
If you run the code, you will get the below result.
Things to Remember about POWER Function
- For a better understanding, we can represent the power function in this way. POWER(X, Y) or POWER(X^Y) both are the same only.
- The POWER function is applied only for numerical values. Anything other than numerical values, it will throw the error as #VALUE! If any one of the parameters contains non-numerical values, we will get the error. The below image shows an example of the error.
It will show an error.
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