{"id":1173,"date":"2024-07-19T01:01:38","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T05:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/?p=1173"},"modified":"2024-07-19T11:24:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T15:24:00","slug":"understanding-google-sheets-with-battleship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/2024\/07\/19\/understanding-google-sheets-with-battleship\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Google Sheets with Battleship"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"d942c2121bfbd137a3b44056a000f09c\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Responsive Top -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9531091850463532\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"6574318169\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>Hi everyone! My name is Dylan. For my summer job, I need to make spreadsheets, and that&#8217;s something I&#8217;ve never done. All I know is that most spreadsheets have formulas, and that makes me nervous. Do I need to be a math expert to get started? (Side note: I am <strong>not <\/strong>a math expert!)<\/p>\n<p>If that&#8217;s how you feel too, I&#8217;ve got good news! When I bravely opened Google Sheets, the grid instantly reminded me of the Battleship game. That familiar layout helped me relax a bit, so I&#8217;m ready to get started!<\/p>\n<h2>Similarities<\/h2>\n<p>First of all, let&#8217;s check out 2 main similarities between Battleship and Google Sheets.<\/p>\n<p>1. Headings<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Battleship has letters down the left side, and numbers across the top<\/li>\n<li>Google Sheets has letters across the top and numbers down the left side<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>2. Grid<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Battleship has a grid where you can place ships and marker pegs<\/li>\n<li>Google Sheets has a grid where you can enter text, numbers, and dates<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Battleship Headings &amp; Grid<\/h2>\n<p>Here is the old, familiar Battleship grid, with ships and markers on it.<\/p>\n<p>Now, say you&#8217;re playing Battleship.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You get a hit on point B2<\/li>\n<li>You get another hit on point E2.<\/li>\n<li>You might calculate that there is a full ship between those two points.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_1192\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/battleship02.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1192\" class=\"wp-image-1192 size-full\" title=\"Battleship grid with letter and number headings\" src=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/battleship02.jpg\" alt=\"Battleship grid with letter and number headings\" width=\"480\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/battleship02.jpg 480w, https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/battleship02-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/battleship02-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/battleship02-80x80.jpg 80w, https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/battleship02-320x320.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1192\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Battleship grid with letter and number headings<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Google Sheets Headings &amp; Grid<\/h2>\n<p>Next, for comparison, here is the Google Sheets grid:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There are 8 columns, with heading letters across the top, from A to H.<\/li>\n<li>There are 8 rows, with heading numbers down the left side, from 1 to 8<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_1211\" style=\"width: 395px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/googlesheetsgrid01.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1211\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1211\" src=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/googlesheetsgrid01.png\" alt=\"Google Sheets grid with letter and number headings\" width=\"385\" height=\"330\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/googlesheetsgrid01.png 385w, https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/googlesheetsgrid01-300x257.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 385px) 100vw, 385px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1211\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Google Sheets grid with letter and number headings<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Ship Shapes on Google Sheets<\/h2>\n<p>Next, I put 3 rectangle shapes in the same spots as the Battleships, from the photo above.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>One &#8220;ship&#8221; starts in cell B2<\/li>\n<li>That ship ends in cell B5<\/li>\n<li>The ship covers a range in the grid, with cells B2, B3, B4, and B5<\/li>\n<li>We can refer to that range like this &#8212; <strong>B2:B5\u00a0 (B2 to B5)<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_1198\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/battleshipsheets02.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1198\" class=\"wp-image-1198 size-full\" title=\"Google Sheets grid with rectangle shapes\" src=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/battleshipsheets01.png\" alt=\"Google Sheets grid with rectangle shapes\" width=\"400\" height=\"335\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/battleshipsheets01.png 400w, https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/battleshipsheets01-300x251.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1198\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Google Sheets grid with rectangle shapes<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Cells in Google Sheets Grid<\/h2>\n<p>So, thanks to Battleship, it&#8217;s easy to understand that locations in a grid have names, based on a letter and number from the headings.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In Google Sheets, each cell has a name, like B2 or D3<\/li>\n<li>We can also refer to a block of cells, with a range reference, like B2:B5, or B2:A6<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Bigger Grids<\/h2>\n<p>In this example, we had a small grid, but real spreadsheets can get much, much bigger!<\/p>\n<p>If we want to expand on this concept, we have to move beyond the Battleship grid, while remembering the key points we&#8217;ve just learned.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s say we have a ton of data across multiple different columns, and down hundreds, or thousands, or rows.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding how to reference specific cells, in that giant spreadsheet,\u00a0 becomes a very important job!<\/p>\n<h2>Practical Applications<\/h2>\n<p>Now, you might be wondering, why is this necessary?<\/p>\n<p>Well, knowing about the grid, and how to locate specific cells, in either Google Sheets or Excel, can help you with more advanced features, like formulas.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, you need to refer to specific cells, or a range of cells to do these spreadsheet tasks:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>sum data across a range of cells<\/li>\n<li>use a specific cell for multiplication<\/li>\n<li>count all the cells with data in a range of cells<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Let&#8217;s think of a practical example &#8212; a spreadsheet where all of your data is spread across 50 columns, and down 200 rows.<\/p>\n<p>By knowing the coordinates of all of your points of data, you can make a formula that gets a total sum for all the numbers in a specific column!<\/p>\n<h2>Final Thoughts<\/h2>\n<p>I hope you feel better about Google Sheets, now that you see how it&#8217;s similar to Battleship.<\/p>\n<p>For now, we can ignore the big difference between the Battleship &amp; Google Sheets &#8212; the fun!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>[<strong>Editor&#8217;s note<\/strong>: Dylan, spreadsheets are lots of fun! Maybe you&#8217;ll change your mind by the end of summer! \ud83d\ude0a ]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Later, we&#8217;ll build on this basic understanding. You&#8217;ll see how to filter and sort data in a spreadsheet. If you need to filter out specific rows or columns based on criteria, knowing how to reference these cells accurately will save you a lot of time and effort.<\/p>\n<p>Also, this grid knowledge lays the groundwork for more advanced spreadsheet skills. By the end of the summer, I might be creating pivot tables, building charts, or writing complicated formulas.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding the spreadsheet grid structure is the first important step, and I hope you&#8217;ll come along for the rest of the ride!<\/p>\n<h2>Video: Understanding Google Sheet With Battleship<\/h2>\n<p>Here is a video that I made on similarities between battleship and Google Sheets. Be sure to check it out, if you&#8217;d rather listen to me talk about this topic, than read about it!<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Understanding Google Sheets with Battleship\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pNDjyr4KLoA?feature=oembed&#038;wmode=opaque\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h2>About the Author<\/h2>\n<p>Dylan S is a 4th year Design Studio student, at a high school in Toronto, Canada. As the summer intern at Contextures, Dylan is adding spreadsheet and video skills to his repertoire. We&#8217;re excited to see him share those new skills online, through his videos and articles.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi everyone! My name is Dylan. For my summer job, I need to make spreadsheets, and that&#8217;s something I&#8217;ve never done. All I know is that most spreadsheets have formulas, and that makes me&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spreadsheets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1173"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1220,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173\/revisions\/1220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}