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CC10045 min

Day 12

Spreadsheets That Calculate

Ready for some spreadsheet magic?

Today's Lesson

Claude Code creates spreadsheets with working formulas, not just numbers. This means your spreadsheets actually calculate things - add new data and the totals update automatically.

Today's Tasks

  1. 1Ask Claude Code to create an expense tracker
  2. 2Include: Date, Description, Category, Amount columns
  3. 3Add formulas: Total, Category subtotals
  4. 4Open it and verify the formulas work

Prompt to Use

Create an expense tracker spreadsheet (.xlsx) with columns for Date, Description, Category, and Amount. Add 5 sample expenses. Include formulas that calculate the total and show spending by category. Make sure the formulas actually work - I'll test them.

Expected Outcome

A working expense tracker with live formulas.

New Terms

  • .xlsx
  • Formula
  • SUM
  • SUMIF

Pro Tip

Ask for "formulas" not "totals". Claude Code will calculate a total for you, but a formula recalculates when you add new data.

Coming Tomorrow

We'll generate PDFs.

P.S. Spreadsheets with formulas are basically mini-programs. You just built one.