Excel University Blog
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Spill
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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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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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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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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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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One reason we love PivotTables is that they automatically expand to include new items. For example, we have a PivotTable that summarizes transactions by account. Then next month, we paste new transactions into the data table and there is a new account. To get this new account included in our report, all we do is…
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This is the second post in a series on dynamic array formulas and spill ranges. In this post, we’ll create a dynamic amortization schedule … and it is actually pretty fun! Before we had spill ranges, it was a hassle to update an amortization schedule when the number of periods changed. That is, you may…
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A while ago, I wrote about creating dependent (aka cascading, dynamic, or conditional) drop-downs using data validation. This is where you have a primary drop-down, and the choices in the related secondary drop-down depend on the selection made in the first drop-down. Well, this process became MUCH easier with the introduction of dynamic array functions…
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