Columns are used in Google Sheets to organize and separate data. By default, each new sheet has three columns: A, B, and C. You can add more columns by clicking on the "+" sign in the bottom left corner of the sheet. To name a column, double-click on the column header. To edit the data in a column, double-click on the cell you want to change.
The COLUMNS function in Google Sheets returns the column number of a given value in a range. The syntax for the COLUMNS function is as follows:
=COLUMNS(reference)
reference - The range of cells for which you want to find the column number.
COLUMNS in Google Sheets can be used to separate data into columns. This can be helpful when you want to organize data or when you want to make calculations on specific data within a column. For example, in a sheet with student test scores, you could use COLUMNS to separate the scores into individual columns for each test. This would allow you to calculate the average score for each test separately.
There are a few occasions when you might not want to use COLUMNS in Google Sheets. For example, if you are trying to create a pivot table with data that is not in rows, COLUMNS will not be helpful. Additionally, if you are trying to create a chart, COLUMNS will not be the best option, as it will create a chart with vertical bars. Instead, you should use ROWS to create a chart with horizontal bars.
COLUMNS in Google Sheets is very similar to the "VLOOKUP" function in Excel. The "COLUMNS" function takes a range of cells as an input and returns the column number of the leftmost cell in the range. The "VLOOKUP" function takes a range of cells as an input, and returns the value in the leftmost column of the range.