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9. Dynamic Arrays

Come friends, today we learn the superpower of new Excel: dynamic arrays (one formula that returns a whole list of values). One formula gives a full list, a filter, a sort or the unique values – and it updates automatically! FILTER, SORT, UNIQUE, SEQUENCE, LET, LAMBDA, VSTACK… Remember, these functions are only in Microsoft 365 and newer Excel.

What you will learn in this module

  • Spill ranges, the # spill reference and #SPILL! errors
  • FILTER, SORT, SORTBY and UNIQUE
  • SEQUENCE and RANDARRAY
  • LET for readable formulas and LAMBDA (brief) for your own functions
  • VSTACK/HSTACK, CHOOSECOLS, TAKE and DROP

Live story: The list that builds itself

Suppose the Nashik manager wants a live list of only Nashik's late orders, sorted by amount, on a separate sheet. Last month Zoya copied and filtered it by hand every morning. In Microsoft 365 one FILTER formula spills the whole list, and SORT and UNIQUE keep it tidy when new rows arrive. This chapter covers FILTER, SORT, UNIQUE, SEQUENCE, LET, LAMBDA and the stack functions.

All numbers in this story are fictional practice data.

Version availability

FILTER, SORT, SORTBY, UNIQUE, SEQUENCE, RANDARRAY and LET: Microsoft 365 / Excel 2021+. LAMBDA, VSTACK, HSTACK, CHOOSECOLS, TAKE and DROP: Microsoft 365 / Excel 2024. In Excel 2019 or older these return #NAME?.

Examples use the Module 3 mini dataset converted to a Table named tblMini (columns Order ID, Date, City, Platform, Category, Qty, Amount, Mins, Status).

Concepts in this chapter

  1. 9.1Spill Ranges and the # Operator
  2. 9.2FILTER
  3. 9.3SORT and SORTBY
  4. 9.4UNIQUE
  5. 9.5SEQUENCE and RANDARRAY
  6. 9.6LET
  7. 9.7LAMBDA (Brief)
  8. 9.8VSTACK and HSTACK
  9. 9.9CHOOSECOLS, TAKE and DROP
  10. 9.10GROUPBY: A Summary Table with One Formula
  11. 9.11PIVOTBY, and PIVOTBY vs PivotTable
  12. 9.12REGEXTEST, REGEXEXTRACT and REGEXREPLACE: Pattern Matching for Messy Text
  13. 9.13TOCOL and TOROW: Turn a Grid into One List
  14. 9.14WRAPROWS and WRAPCOLS: Turn One Long List into a Grid
  15. 9.15EXPAND: Make an Array a Fixed Size
  16. 9.16TRIMRANGE and the Trim Ref (Dot) Operator
  17. 9.17IMAGE: Pictures Inside Cells
  18. 9.18Named LAMBDA Functions in Name Manager, with Optional Arguments (ISOMITTED)
  19. 9.19MAP, REDUCE, SCAN, BYROW, BYCOL and MAKEARRAY with Real Examples
  20. 9.20Recursive LAMBDA and a Small Reusable Function Library

Review and practice

  1. ★Practice and Answer Key: New Dynamic Array and LAMBDA Functions
  2. ★Practice and Answer Key: FILTER, SORT and UNIQUE

The chapter recap is at the end of the last concept page.

Quick revision cards

Quick revision

Revise this chapter in two minutes. Save the cards on your phone or download them as PNG files. All names and numbers are made up for practice.

Revision card: FILTER, UNIQUE and LET. Example data table with Pune orders above ₹500: Amir and Rani rows; How many different cities: 2; Amir's share of the total: 30.4%.
Card 1 of 2: FILTER, UNIQUE and LET · Download PNG
Revision card: TAKE, SORT, DROP and CHOOSECOLS. Example data table with Top 3 orders by profit: O2, O3, O5; All orders except the first: O2 to O5 (4 rows); Only the profit column: 120, 450, 300, 90, 210.
Card 2 of 2: TAKE, SORT, DROP and CHOOSECOLS · Download PNG

More cards for every chapter: Ravi Sir's Cards.