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Functions

Mastering Excel’s PIVOTBY Function: A Dynamic Pivot Table Alternative

By Jeff Lenning | March 31, 2026 |

Sometimes, we need the flexibility of a PivotTable without actually building one. Whether we’re automating dashboards, preparing recurring reports, or just streamlining our workbooks, Excel’s PIVOTBY function gives us a powerful, formula-based solution. In this post, we’ll explore how to transform raw data into dynamic summary reports using a single formula — no PivotTable required.…

GROUPBY

By Jeff Lenning | March 24, 2026 |

Microsoft Excel continues to evolve, and one of the most impressive additions to the Excel formula family is the GROUPBY function. With it, we now have the power to create fully dynamic and flexible summary reports—all with a single formula. If you’ve relied on pivot tables or manual formulas for reporting, you’re going to love…

CHOOSEROWS CHOOSECOLS

By Jeff Lenning | March 17, 2026 |

When working with tabular data in Excel, there are often times we need to extract specific rows or columns based on custom logic. This is where the CHOOSEROWS and CHOOSECOLS functions come into play. These recently introduced dynamic array functions are powerful alternatives to functions like TAKE and DROP, offering more flexibility by letting us…

IMPORTCSV IMPORTTEXT

By Jeff Lenning | March 10, 2026 |

Bringing external data into Excel used to mean a lot of clicking: opening files, copy/pasting, or launching Power Query. But with Excel’s newer IMPORTCSV and IMPORTTEXT functions, you can now load external data directly into your sheet with a simple formula. Video Tutorial These functions are lightweight, fast, and flexible—great for quick access to structured…

WRAPROWS WRAPCOLS

By Jeff Lenning | March 3, 2026 |

Sometimes when we copy data into Excel—from websites, reports, or bank statements—it doesn’t arrive in a nice, neat table. Instead, it comes in as one long line of values, either in a row or a column. That’s where WRAPROWS and WRAPCOLS come in. Video Tutorial In this post, we’ll explore how to use these functions…

TOROW TOCOL

By Jeff Lenning | February 25, 2026 |

When we’re working with structured data in Excel—especially data that comes in from reports or exports—it’s not always in the best shape for analysis. Sometimes, the data we receive is cross-tabulated (months as columns, categories as rows), but we need it in a flat format. Video Tutorial In this tutorial, we’ll explore two powerful Excel…

VSTACK HSTACK

By Jeff Lenning | February 17, 2026 |

Ever find yourself combining data from multiple reports—maybe quarterly exports or regional summaries? If you’ve been manually copy-pasting data together, it’s time to meet your new best friends: VSTACK and HSTACK. Video Tutorial These two functions make it easy to stack datasets vertically or horizontally without breaking a sweat. In this post, we’ll explore both…

TAKE DROP

By Jeff Lenning | February 10, 2026 |

Sometimes we want to grab just the latest few rows of a report, remove some headers, or extract a specific section of data—like Q2 sales—from a larger table. Excel’s TAKE and DROP functions are perfect for these tasks. In this post, we’ll walk through real examples (based on our sample file) to see how these…

The TEXTJOIN Function

By Jeff Lenning | February 3, 2026 |

Combining text data from different cells is a common task in Excel, especially when dealing with employee directories, codes, or summarized reports. While we’ve often relied on functions like CONCATENATE or the ampersand (&) to accomplish this, Excel’s TEXTJOIN function provides a more flexible, powerful, and streamlined approach. Video What is the TEXTJOIN Function? In…

How to Use TEXTSPLIT

By Jeff Lenning | January 27, 2026 |

Breaking apart long strings of data into separate cells is a common task in Excel—and with the TEXTSPLIT function, we have an incredibly powerful and flexible tool to do just that. In this post, we’ll explore how TEXTSPLIT can help us split data into columns, rows, or both—all from a single cell entry! Video What…