How to use the Excel PRODUCT function

Being an Excel user, you might have fall for a situation sometimes, where you need to multiply two or more numbers. While excel has different ways to do so, there is one popular way among all and that is using PRODUCT function. Using this function you can do a product of (or Multiply) two or more than two numbers spread along with different cells of your Excel sheet. PRODUCT function in Excel is categorized under Math/Trigonometric function. This function takes at least one argument as an input and gives multiplication of the numbers as an output. If only, one argument is provided then it multiplies that number with 1 and gives output as a product. It is helpful when you have data scattered along with the ranges.

Syntax: =PRODUCT(number1, [number2], …)

The PRODUCT function syntax has the following arguments:

• number1    Required. The first number or range that you want to multiply.

• number2, …    Optional. Additional numbers or ranges that you want to multiply, up to a maximum of 255 arguments.

Example: Let’s look at some Excel PRODUCT function examples and explore how to use the PRODUCT function as a worksheet function in Microsoft Excel:

Example 1:

Syntax:  =PRODUCT(A2:A10)

Result:

Based on the Excel spreadsheet above, the following PRODUCT examples would return:

• If we left the cell empty, the multiplication operator considers the value as zero for that cell and multiplies it with other numbers which ultimately gives zero as output.
• PRODUCT function does ignore the cells with blanks, texts or non-numeric data and gives product/multiplication of those cells which has numeric data in them.

Example 2:

We also can use PRODUCT function in combination with different mathematical/trigonometric functions. Suppose we are having two offices across the city and employee are working on both offices altogether with some work from home facility available for them.

We wanted to check the product of hours an employee worked under office A & B (Sum of Office & Work From Home Hours). This can be done using the combination of function SUM and PRODUCT.

Syntax: =PRODUCT(SUM(A2:B2),SUM(C2:D2))

Result:

Note:

1. Numbers can be supplied individually or in ranges.
2. PRODUCT can accept up to 255 arguments total.
3. Only numbers in the array or reference are multiplied.
4. Empty cells, logical values, and text in the array or reference are ignored.