Excel University Blog

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Dynamic Arrays

Max Date for per Category

By Jeff Lenning | October 15, 2024 |

Hello, and welcome to our latest Excel tutorial! I was recently asked the following question: how do I see the max date for each vendor assuming each vendor has multiple dates? So, in this post, we’ll learn how to find the maximum date for each category — in this case, each vendor with multiple transactions.…

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What is a dynamic array formula in Excel

By Jeff Lenning | October 10, 2023 |

In this tutorial, we will learn about dynamic array formulas in Excel, which allow us to write a single formula that returns multiple results and spills them into adjacent cells. We will cover various exercises, exploring array creation, dynamic array functions, and combining functions for powerful data manipulation. By the end, you’ll have a solid…

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Excel Tips from 20 Experts

By Jeff Lenning | February 21, 2023 |

My friend John Michaloudis does an annual survey of Excel MVPs and experts and asks for their best Excel tip. He compiles the tips into an audio podcast along with show notes and related links. This is a great resource and I love sharing it every year. This year, he rounded up tips from: You’ll…

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Dynamic Arrays 3

By Jeff Lenning | August 24, 2020 |

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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Dynamic Arrays 2

By Jeff Lenning | August 17, 2020 |

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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Dynamic Arrays 1

By Jeff Lenning | August 11, 2020 |

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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Split Amount into Monthly Columns

By Jeff Lenning | May 12, 2020 |

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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Dynamic Arrays Article

By Jeff Lenning | May 5, 2020 |

Microsoft has been hard at work updating Excel’s calculation engine. Depending on the version of Excel you’re using, you either have—or will have when you update—access to some capabilities that are sure to change how you think about and use Excel. I wrote about one of the new capabilities called Dynamic Arrays for California CPA…

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Charting a Spill Range

By Jeff Lenning | March 19, 2019 |

The past several posts have illustrated various ways to apply dynamic array formulas and their spill ranges. Kent asked if we could use spill ranges to create a dynamic chart to visualize the future value of an investment portfolio. For example, start with someone’s current portfolio value and then apply an assumed growth rate and…

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Automatically Copy Transactions into Spill Ranges

By Jeff Lenning | March 13, 2019 |

Let’s say we have a data-entry table, where we type or paste new transactions. We would like a copy of each transaction to be directed to a specific worksheet, depending on the transaction type. For example, sales transactions should flow from the data-entry table into another worksheet that displays all sales transactions. Returns should flow…

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