---
title: "What is the ‘what if’ analysis in excel?"  
description: "What is the ‘what if’ analysis in excel?"  
author: "Steilla Mitchel"  
published: 2022-03-25  
canonical: https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/96525/what-is-the-what-if-analysis-in-excel  
category: "troubleshooting"  
tags: ["troubleshooting", "excel"]  
reading_time: 1 minute  

---

# What is the ‘what if’ analysis in excel?

What is the ‘what if’ [analysis](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/339568/how-to-use-cohort-analysis-to-identify-high-retention-behaviors) in excel?

## Answers

### Answer by Hitesh Vohra

![What is the ‘what if’ analysis in excel?](https://answers.mindstick.com/questionanswer/32a75ef2-841c-40d8-b5f7-cfe512bb5f97/images/8d1d2b77-9deb-4563-908e-7bf6c656a283.jpeg) **\**

- **What-If Analysis** is the act of altering cell values to observe how such changes affect the results of formulas on the worksheet.
- Scenarios, Goal Seek, and Data Tables are three types of What-If Analysis tools included with [**Excel**](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/96515/what-do-you-mean-by-cell-address-in-excel). Scenarios and data tables take a collection of input values and predict what might happen.
- A Data Table only has one or two variables, but those variables can have many different values. Although a Scenario can have several variables, it can only hold 32 values. In contrast to Scenarios and Data Tables, Goal Seek takes a result and determines possible input values that create that result.

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**Read More: [Explain pivot tables along with their features in excel.](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/96519/explain-pivot-tables-along-with-their-features-in-excel)**


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