Excel - Goal Seek

Excel's Goal Seek is a simple idea. When you have a cell containing a formula, sometimes you know the final value you want to achieve, but your question is, "What input values will produce that result?"

The illustration below shows a worksheet that calculates how expensive a car someone can afford. The user has entered a formula in cell B3 as follows: =(B1+B2)/0.2).

The question Goal Seek will answer is, "How much down payment do I need to afford a car of $30,000?"

Online Resources

• Goal Seek video demo from DataPig Technologies
  
• Using Excel Goal Seek to Vary Results at Ozgrid.com
  
• Goal Seek from University of Reading
  
• Goal Seek as part of What-if Anaylsis from University of Maryland