Have you ever found yourself buried under a mountain of Excel spreadsheets, painstakingly updating formulas every time new data comes in? It’s a common struggle, one that can turn even the most ...

Q. Is it possible to sort a column in Excel using formulas rather than the Data tab’s Sort tool, so the sort process is performed automatically as I update my data? A. Excel has announced a new ...

Excel's basic formulas work fine for simple calculations, but they quickly become cumbersome when you're dealing with complex data analysis. You end up with nested functions that are hard to read, ...

Excel’s BYCOL() and BYROW() functions evaluate data across columns and rows, returning an array result set allowing you to bypass a lot of work. Most Microsoft Excel functions are autonomous—one ...

Dynamic arrays change the rules for formula output in Excel. When I write a formula that returns a list by default, I need to decide whether I want the result to spill across a range of cells or ...

An curved arrow pointing right. {} These brackets mean something magical is happening inside your Excel formula. An "Array" function allows you to perform mathematical operations on many cells instead ...

Excel doesn’t have a built-in AVERAGEIF() function, but you can still average values, conditionally. Excel has SumIf and CountIf, but no AverageIf. However, with a little array magic, you can get ...

In addition to the new SORT function, you may also find the new FILTER and UNIQUE array functions useful. For example, the worksheet on the next page contains a detailed listing of invoices in columns ...

is a senior correspondent and author of Notepad, who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Microsoft Excel used to only allow two types of data: text and numbers.