Are Excel formulas and Google Spreadsheet formulas the same?

Question

I want to be sure all my Google Spreadsheet work can be converted OK to Excel. How many of the Excel formulas match the formulas of Google spreadsheets?

Answer 1

I bashed up a comparison sheet for the formulas between MS Excel 2010 and Google Spreadsheet. Comparison was based on the names only. See snapshot of the current situation:

If you want to make sure that Google Spreadsheet files are properly converted and still work in MS Excel 2010, then don't use the following formulas:

ADD
ARRAYFORMULA
CONCAT
CONTINUE
COUNTUNIQUE
DetectLanguage
DIVIDE
EQ
EXPAND
FILTER
GoogleClock
GoogleFinance
GoogleLookup
GoogleTournament
GoogleTranslate
GREATER THAN
GTE
IMAGE
ImportData
ImportFeed
ImportHtml
ImportRange
ImportXML
JOIN
LT
LTE
MINUS
MULTIPLY
NE
NOEXPAND
POW
QUERY
REGEXEXTRACT
REGEXMATCH
REGEXREPLACE
SORT
Sparkline
SPLIT
TO_DATE
TO_DOLLARS
TO_PERCENT
TO_PURE_NUMBER
TO_TEXT
UMINUS
UNARY_PERCENT
UNIQUE
UPLUS

Reference: MS EXCEL vs. GOOGLE SPREADSHEET

Answer 2

I bashed up a comparison sheet for the formulas between MS Excel 2013 and the new Google Spreadsheet. Comparison was based on the names only. See snapshot of the current situation.

Screenshot

If you want to make sure that the new Google Spreadsheet files are properly converted and still work in MS Excel 2013, then don't use the following formulas.

Formulas

ADD
ARRAY_CONSTRAIN
ARRAYFORMULA
CONCAT
CONTINUE
COUNTUNIQUE
DETECTLANGUAGE
DIVIDE
EQ
EXPAND
F.DIST
F.DIST.RT
FILTER
FINDB
GOOGLECLOCK
GOOGLEFINANCE
GOOGLETOURNAMENT
GOOGLETRANSLATE
GT
GTE
IMAGE
IMPORTDATA
IMPORTFEED
IMPORTHTML
IMPORTRANGE
IMPORTXML
ISEMAIL
ISURL
JOIN
LT
LTE
MINUS
MULTIPLY
NE
NETWORKDAYS.INTL
NOEXPAND
PERCENTRANK.EXC
PERCENTRANK.INC
POW
QUERY
RANK.AVG
RANK.EQ
REGEXEXTRACT
REGEXMATCH
REGEXREPLACE
SEARCHB
SORT
SPARKLINE
SPLIT
T.INV
T.INV.2T
TO_DATE
TO_DOLLARS
TO_PERCENT
TO_PURE_NUMBER
TO_TEXT
UMINUS
UNARY_PERCENT
UNIQUE
UPLUS
WORKDAY.INTL

Reference

• MS EXCEL 2013 vs. GOOGLE SPREADSHEET

Answer 3

If you're only worried about formulas, it shouldn't be a big problem, as Google Spreadsheets is now mature enough to support all the typical spreadsheet functions. It might be that the names are not exactly the same, or that some of them have to be done in a different way. So unless you're using some obscure stuff, you should be okay. I suggest you get a list of all the functions being used on your Excel Spreadsheets and then try them in Google Docs.

Also, if you're using any VB macros, you can forget about Google Docs.