Excel University Blog
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Posts
I was recently asked how to find the last occurrence of a value in a column. Although there are multiple ways to accomplish this, in this post, I’ll talk about how to use XLOOKUP. Objective Before we jump into Excel, let’s confirm our objective. Let’s say we have a bunch of transactions that look like…
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There are times I need to quickly convert a quantity from one unit of measure to another (inch, foot), or from one system of measurement to another (metric, imperial). For example, when I am entering meals into MyFitnessPal, preparing a meal in the kitchen, or working on a project in the garage. When I need…
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I received a question from Sam, who asked how to insert a variable number of rows (X rows) into a table based on a column value. That is, by the number specified in a column. In this post, we’ll accomplish this request with Power Query. Objective Before we jump into Excel, let’s confirm our objective.…
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I was asked how to prepare a table with 50 columns for printing. The specific request was to break each record in the data table into multiple printed rows with a blank row in between each record. Basically, we want the columns to wrap when printed. In this post, I’ll show how to define groups…
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Hyperlinks are a useful way to expedite navigation. If you have ever created a hyperlink to a worksheet, you may have noticed that your hyperlink can break if you change the worksheet name. This post demonstrates how to use defined names to avoid this type of error. Objective Let’s say we want to make it…
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Microsoft just announced a new Excel function called STOCKHISTORY. This function provides a way to retrieve historical stock quotes directly into Excel. As it is being rolled out over time, I haven’t had a chance to use it yet. But as soon as my copy of Excel receives the function, I’ll write a post about…
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Historically we have been able to get PDF data into Excel using a standard copy/paste or some third-party tools. Now we have another option. We can use Power Query to retrieve values from PDF files. This post walks through the basics. Video Objective We have a PDF file, perhaps it looks like this: We…
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In this post, I’ll answer a question I received from Sara about how to create a drop down with each worksheet name and reference it in a formula to retrieve values from the selected sheet. As this is Excel, there are a variety of alternatives to accomplish this. In this post, I’ll demonstrate one such…
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I recently wrote an article for the Minnesota Society of CPAs about a technique that helps you create budgets faster. Even if you don’t prepare budgets, the underlying features and functions used can be applied elsewhere. In summary, we use a data validation drop-down to provide several Budget Methods. Once you select a budget method…
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Let’s say you need to take an amount and split it evenly into monthly columns. For example, perhaps you need to recognize revenue over time. Or, perhaps you have spent some money and you need to allocate the expense over time. There are other illustrations, but the basic idea is that you have a total…
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