Excel University Blog
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Historically, we have created calculated columns by writing formulas. In this post, we’ll see that in some cases, clicking a few buttons in Power Query can be a nice alternative. Objective Before we get into the mechanics, let’s confirm our objective. Let’s say we have a table full of transactions, like this: We would like…
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Let’s say we want to retrieve historical stock quotes for a specific security into Excel. Since this is Excel, there are of course several options. Before the STOCKHISTORY function, we could pull data from relevant web pages using Power Query (which I’ve written about before here). But, the most current versions of Excel now have…
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This is the third post in the Dynamic Arrays series. In the first two posts, we discussed the spill range and the spill reference operator. If you’ve enjoyed the first two posts, I think you’ll enjoy this one even more because we get to talk about the FILTER and XLOOKUP functions. Video Overview So far,…
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This is the second post in the Dynamic Arrays series. In the first post, we talked about how formulas can return multiple values, the resulting spill range, and two dynamic array functions. In this post, we’ll talk about how to refer to the spill range with other formulas. Video Spill Range The spill range includes…
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During the years we have been using Excel, we have come to understand that a formula calculates a value. Meaning, a single value. Right? Like … we write a formula, hit Enter, and the result is displayed in the cell. Easy … that is how we have been using Excel for decades. Multiple Values But…
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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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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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