Excel University Blog

Read on for in-depth articles, tutorials, and videos. Search or browse for specific topics. Be sure to subscribe if you'd like to be notified when we write something new.

LET

Zip Code Magic

By Jeff Lenning | November 25, 2025 |

Have you ever wanted Excel to automatically return the City and State when simply entering a ZIP code? In this guide, we’ll explore three reliable methods to make that magic happen. Using Excel Copilot, Power Query, and traditional Excel functions, we’ll show how to pull accurate location data from a ZIP code using a live…

Zip Code Lookup API

By Jeff Lenning | November 4, 2025 |

Imagine being able to type a zip code into a cell in Excel and have the corresponding city and state automatically fill in. No manual entry, no lookup tables … just a smart, seamless automation. In this walkthrough, we’ll explore how to tap into a free zip code API using Excel’s WEBSERVICE function, and then…

Generate Sudoku in Excel with Free API

By Jeff Lenning | September 30, 2025 |

Did you know we can auto-generate Sudoku puzzles right inside Excel, without manually entering grid layouts? With the WEBSERVICE function and a little help from a Sudoku API, we can create both a playable Sudoku puzzle and its corresponding solution dynamically. In this step-by-step guide, we’ll show how to make a Sudoku board using Excel’s…

Excel Formulas Tutorial: What are Formulas and How to Use Them

By Excel University | April 19, 2022 |

Formulas are what make Excel, Excel. They’re how we perform both simple and complex calculations, and the possibilities are nearly endless as far as what they can do. Today, we’re going back to the basics with an overview of what formulas are and how to use them, as well as sharing our Excel formulas tutorial…

Create a Dynamic PivotTable Style Report with One Formula

By Jeff Lenning | March 29, 2022 |

Historically, we’ve had two basic ways to create reports in Excel. We could enter the report labels and use formulas to compute the report values or we could use a PivotTable. Both options had pros and cons. We’d have to pick the report type based on the context of our workbook. In this post, I’ll…

CalCPA LET Article

By Jeff Lenning | July 6, 2021 |

Often, our Excel formulas are simple and short. As such, they are easy to read, understand and maintain over time. But, as the complexity of our workbooks increases, so can the complexity of our formulas. Sometimes, we end up with unwieldy formulas that are long and difficult to understand and maintain. One cause for such…

Remove Duplication in Formulas with LET

By Jeff Lenning | April 28, 2020 |

Have you ever written a formula that repeats the same expression multiple times? I know I have. One simple example is IF((A1-B1)=0,0,A1-B1). Notice how the expression A1-B1 is used twice? This is a simple example of duplicating an expression within a formula. In general, we want to try to remove/minimize such duplication to make the…