Nowadays we are often overwhelmed by numerous projects and activities. Some of which are complex and energy intensive. Fortunately, Notion has developed formulas to help overcome any obstacle, no matter how demanding.
If you want to know how to use formulas in Notion, you’ve come to the right place. This article will tell you everything you need to know.
Notion: how to use formulas
Although they may seem daunting, Notion’s formulas are really easy to use. Here’s what you need to do to use formulas in Notion:
- Log in to notion
- Open the database, add a new property in the database and select a formula.
- Click on the formula and a pop-up window will appear.
- Choose the constant and the operators.
Remember that formulas require a database, so you’ll need a page that includes one.
What is the notion used for?
Notion is a blank workspace that allows you to create pages. You can dedicate each page to a project or event you are working on. These pages may be shared with other users or used solely by you. Please note that sharing with other users may require a subscription.
On each page you can create a database. Databases can take different forms, depending on the data and what you use it for. These are the available views:
- Timeline
- Gallery
- Calendar
- Table
- List
You can always change the view of your database to adapt it to your needs. It can be done with just two clicks and doesn’t require you to start from scratch. You can also delete it if necessary. Even if you want to change your mind and recover something you deleted, that is also possible.
What are formulas used for?
As you probably already know, Notion helps you keep track of your obligations by creating pages. As such, you can create your own databases in the views that suit you best.
All of which may make you wonder, “If I already chose a database, why would I need formulas?” There are three reasons to add formulas to your data:
- Calculate new values. For example, you have a series of activities aimed at different members. If you want to calculate how much each member contributes to projects, you can calculate their percentage of activities compared to the total number of activities.
- Show values in a different way. You may have listed the age of each of your team members. But since this is modifiable information, you can calculate their year of birth by implementing a formula.
- Find a correlation between values. You may want to check whether information linked to a member also implies other information. For example, you can check whether married members of your team have children or not. This way you could find a rule in your data.
As you can see, manipulating your data using formulas can produce conclusions you wouldn’t have otherwise reached.
Elements of a formula
These are the elements you need to create a formula in Notion:
- Input values: represent the data you want to manipulate.
- The action: What exactly do you want to do with your data? Add? Subtract? Split?
- Possible conditions: In some cases, you may have certain conditions where the formula could be applied exclusively. For example, you don’t want to subtract a number unless it is greater than five.
Now that you know what constitutes a formula in Notion, you can test them with your data.
Terminology linked to formulas
Here is terminology that you may find helpful when using formulas:
- Function: determines the relationship between its variables, that is, its inputs.
- Syntax: refers to the order in the formula, which will affect the result.
- Argument: these are their contributions.
- String: A group of values in a formula. They are usually connected in quotes.
- Boolean: Displays the output as true or false.
- Concatenate – This allows you to join two values into one.
The formulas can be quite confusing. We hope this clears things up a bit.
Different types of functions in Notion
Now you might ask, “Sure, Notion can help me use formulas, but for what functions?” These are the types of functions these formulas cover:
- Logical functions: These are used to test certain assumptions, such as whether values are equal, greater, empty, etc.
- Numerical functions: used for mathematical calculations, such as subtraction, pision, finding the root, etc.
- Textual functions: can be used to merge words, replace them, count characters, etc.
- Date functions: can help you calculate the time between dates, determine a date, return the end date, etc.
The possibilities are almost endless. There is no need to worry that Notion cannot meet your data analysis needs, regardless of the data format.
Differences between Excel and notions formulas
Excel is the most used tool in the world when it comes to formulas. But what are the differences between Excel and Notion? Some are named below:
- Property References: In Excel, refers to inpidual cells. Notion allows you to reference columns. For each element in a column, its formula will be applied throughout the database. This can certainly speed things up for you.
- Connecting Values: In Excel, you’ll use “&” to connect two or more values in a formula. In Notion, you’ll use “+” instead.
- Complex calculations: Although Notion has its advantages, when it comes to complex calculations, Excel takes the win.
- Data visualization features: Excel offers several types of charts: bars, pie, columns, areas, etc. Unfortunately, these are not yet available in Notion. So if you need charts, you’ll have to stick with Excel.
- Reference the entire database: Using formulas in Excel applies to a single spreadsheet. So, you can have two spreadsheets with the same data and do completely different things in them. On the other hand, in Notion your formulas will be applied to the entire database. We could say that a database page in Notion could look like a spreadsheet in Excel.
Not sure which tool to choose? It all depends on each person’s taste. Although Excel may be the most well-known option, trying new things can lead to unexpected results.
Formulas are useful
Each project in Notion will have its page with databases in various formats. Since databases include a large number of variables, you may want to manipulate them. You can enter different types of formulas to obtain new data or make connections between existing data. Although Excel is the most famous tool for this, trying new things could surprise you in a positive way. So why not try Notion formulas?
Math may not have been your favorite subject in school, but we have to agree that using formulas can be useful. Especially when it comes to a wide spectrum of information, whether numerical, logical, textual or even dated. They will let you analyze it to reach conclusions and solutions. They could even show you relationships between data, which you weren’t even aware of.
Have you used formulas in Notion? Did you find them difficult? Tell us in the comments p below.
