If your tables have only a few dozen rows, then most likely any method will be fast enough, and you won't notice the difference. But if the number of rows in your tables is measured in thousands, the correct choice of the function is crucial - the difference in performance can be more than 10 times! Continue reading
Financial decisions are important part of business strategy and planning. In everyday life, we also have quite a lot of financial decisions to make. For such scenarios, Excel provides the RATE function that will help you calculate an interest rate for a specific period. Continue reading
While working with numeric data in Excel, you may often need to get the highest numbers based on criteria. The bad news is that the LARGEIF function does not exist in Excel. The good news is that you can easily construct your own LARGE IF formula. Continue reading
In case you want to bring focus to the highest or lowest N values in a dataset, the best way is to highlight them in different colors. This article will teach you how to do this with Excel's presets and create your own conditional formatting rule based on formula. Continue reading
Want to identify the highest or lowest values in a column or row? Need to return not only the values themselves but their names too? With this tutorial, you will learn how to find top 3, 5, 10 or n values in a dataset and retrieve matching data. Continue reading
When analyzing a set of numbers, it often makes sense to find the biggest ones. Getting the highest value is super-easy with the MAX function. When it comes to targeting a specific largest value, say the 2nd or the 3rd biggest number in a dataset, the LARGE function comes in handy. Continue reading
Trying to get a bottom value based on one or more conditions? Just use the SMALL function together with IF. This tutorial shows how to build such a formula and explains its internal logic, so that you could easily decipher the formula and adjust for your needs. Continue reading
Need to find a few lowest numbers in a worksheet? This is quite easy to do with the Excel Sort feature. Do not want to re-sort your data with every change? The SMALL function will help you quickly find the lowest value, second lowest, third lowest, and so on. Continue reading
Trying to build an IF statement with wildcard text, but it fails every time? The problem is not in your formula but in the function itself - Excel IF does not support wildcard characters. However, there is a way to get it to work for partial text match, and this tutorial will teach you how. Continue reading
When you are looking for something but not exactly sure exactly what, wildcards are a perfect solution. You can think of a wildcard as a joker that can take on any value. There are only 3 wildcard characters in Excel, but they can do so many useful things! Continue reading
Working on a report, investment plan or any other dataset with dates, you may often need to sum values within a specific period. This tutorial will teach you a quick and easy solution - SUMIFS formula with date range as criteria. Continue reading
Microsoft Excel has a special function to sum cells with multiple conditions and the AND logic - the SUMIFS function. In some situations, however, you may need to sum with multiple OR criteria. And this is when the SUMIF function comes in handy. Continue reading
Sometimes Excel worksheets can be difficult to read because of dense information and complex structure. Adding borders around cells can help you distinguish different sections, emphasize certain data, and make your worksheets better presentable and more attractive. Continue reading
In Excel 365, the XMATCH function was added to supersede the MATCH function. But before you start upgrading your existing formulas, it would be wise to understand all advantages of the new function and how it differs from the old one. Continue reading
Creating a simple drop down list in Excel is easy. Making a cascading drop-down has always been a problem. But not any more! The introduction of dynamic arrays in Excel 365 provided a fast and easy solution. Continue reading
Until recently, there has been just one easy way to generate dates in Excel - the AutoFill feature. The introduction of the new dynamic array SEQUENCE function has made it possible to make a series of dates with a formula too. This tutorial takes an in-depth look at both methods so that you can choose the one that works best for you. Continue reading
The times when you had to put numbers in sequence in Excel manually are long gone. In modern Excel, you can make a simple number series in a flash with the Auto Fill feature. If you have a more specific task in mind, then use the SEQUENCE function, which is specially designed for this purpose. Continue reading
As you probably know, Microsoft Excel has several functions for generating random numbers such as RAND, RANDBETWEEN and RANDARRAY. However, there is no guarantee that their result will be duplicate free. This tutorial shows a few formulas to build your own unique random number generator for Excel. Continue reading
A while ago, we described a few different ways to randomly select in Excel. Most of those solutions rely on the RAND and RANDBETWEEN functions, which may generate duplicate numbers. If you need a random selection without duplicates, then use the approaches described in this tutorial. Continue reading
As you probably know, Microsoft Excel already has a couple of randomizing functions. What is the sense in introducing another one? In a nutshell, because it's far more powerful and can replace all of the older functions. Continue reading
Due to the revolutionary update in the Excel 365 calculation engine, array formulas become very straightforward and understandable for everyone, not just for super users. The tutorial explains what dynamic arrays are, and how they can make your worksheets more efficient. Continue reading
Microsoft Excel provides a number of ways to arrange text data alphabetically, dates chronologically, and numbers from smallest to largest. In addition to the traditional Sort functionality, Excel 365 introduces a brand-new way to sort data with formulas. Continue reading
The Sort functionality has been around for a long time. But with the introduction of dynamic arrays in Excel 365, there appeared an amazingly simple way to sort in Excel with formulas. The beauty of this method is that the results update automatically when the source data changes. Continue reading
The introduction of the FILTER function in Excel 365 has become a long-awaited alternative to the conventional methods. Unlike the Filter feature that needs to be re-applied with each data change, Excel formulas recalculate automatically, so you need to set up your filter just once! Continue reading
A couple of years ago, we discussed various ways to count unique and distinct values in Excel by using traditional array formulas. Today, we will show you a much simpler solution with the recently introduced dynamic array functions. Continue reading
In the previous versions of Excel, getting a list of unique values was a hard challenge. The introduction of the UNIQUE function in Excel 365 has changed everything! Now, you don't need to be a formula expert to get unique values from a range, based on one or multiple criteria, and sort the results in alphabetical order. Continue reading
Until recently, there were two prevalent methods to merge cell contents in Excel: the concatenation operator and CONCATENATE function. With the introduction of TEXTJOIN, it seems like a more powerful alternative has appeared, which enables you to join text in a more flexible manner including any delimiter in between. Continue reading
In some situations, you may want to know how many cells do not have anything in them. This tutorial will show you the fastest and most convenient methods to get the number of empty cells in a range as well as totally blank rows. Continue reading
In a small dataset, you can easily spot all the blanks with your own eyes. But in a huge file containing hundreds of rows, pinpointing empty cells manually is next to impossible. This tutorial will teach you four quick and easy ways to highlight blank cells in Excel so that you can visually recognize them. Continue reading
There are many situations when you need to check if a cell is empty or not. For instance, if cell is blank, then you might want to sum, count, copy a value from another cell, or do nothing. In these scenarios, ISBLANK is the right function to use. Continue reading
