The Goal Seek feature
Excel’s Goal Seek feature is a means of automating guesswork in Excel. Let’s say that you want to buy a car, and you know the interest rate, the term of the loan, and the payment that you’re seeking, but you don’t know how much you can borrow. Here are the steps:
- Activate the Goal Seek worksheet.
- Choose Data | What-If Analysis | Goal Seek.
- Enter or select cell C5 in the Set cell field of the Goal Seek dialog box, as shown in Figure 6.12:
Figure 6.12 – The Goal Seek dialog box
- Enter an amount, such as
350, into the To value field. - Enter or select cell C5 in the By Changing Cell field.
Nuance
Excel will show $C$4 in the Set cell field and $C$5 in the By changing cell field if you click on the worksheet with your mouse as opposed to typing the cell address into the field. The $ symbols indicate an absolute reference that is not required in this case because the Goal...
