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The goal is to create a formula that returns "Done" in column E when a cell in column D is not blank (i.e., contains a value). In the worksheet shown, column D records the date a task is completed. If column D contains a date (i.e. is not empty), we can assume the task is complete...Read more

This example uses the UNIQUE function, which is fully automatic. When UNIQUE is provided with the range B5:B16, which contains 12 values, it returns the 7 unique values seen in D5:D11.

UNIQUE is a dynamic function. If any data in B5:B16 changes, the output from UNIQUE will update...Read more

In this example, the goal is to sum the last n columns in a set of data, where n is a variable that can be changed at any time. In the latest version of Excel, the easiest way to solve this problem is with the TAKE...Read more

This formula uses the MIN function as an alternative to the IF function.

Although MIN is frequently used to find the minimum value in a larger set of numbers, it also works fine with just two...Read more

In this example, the goal is to create a clickable link that will result in a ready-to-send email.

The mailto link protocol

The mailto link protocol allows five variables as shown in the table below:

The goal in this example is to sum Prices in column C when the Items in column B contain an asterisk (*). The challenge is that the asterisk (*) is reserved as a wildcard in functions like the SUMIFS function, so you can't match a literal occurrence of this character without using a...Read more

The FILTER function is designed to extract data that matches one or more criteria. In this case, we want to apply criteria that requires all three columns in the source data (Name, Group, and Room) to have data. In other words, if a row is missing any of...Read more

The gist: this formula "floods" the space between words in a text string with a large number of spaces, finds and extracts the substring of interest, and uses the TRIM function to clean up the mess.

Working from the inside out, the original text in B5 is flooded with spaces using...Read more

When no argument is provided, the ROW function returns the "current row", that is, the row number of the cell that contains it. When a cell reference is provided, ROW returns the row number of the cell. When a range is provided, ROW returns the first row number in the range.

In the...Read more

In this example, the goal is to highlight empty cells in the range C5:J16 with conditional formatting. This is a quick and easy way to locate missing values in a data set. To apply a conditional formatting rule to highlight empty cells, follow these steps:

1. Select the
...Read more

Data validation rules are triggered when a user adds or changes a cell value. This formula takes advantage of this behavior to provide a clever way for the user to switch between a short list of cities and a longer list of cities. In the worksheet shown, the data validation applied to C4 looks...Read more

The XMATCH function offers new features not available with the MATCH function. One of these is the ability to perform a "reverse search", by setting the optional search mode argument. The default value for search mode is 1, which specifies a normal "first to last" search. In this mode, XMATCH...Read more

The goal is to identify records where the color is "Red" or "Green" and the quantity is greater than 10. If a row meets all conditions, the formula should return "x". If any condition is not true, the formula should return an empty string (""). This problem can be solved with the IF function...Read more

In this example, the goal is to lookup data to the left of an ID that appears as the last column in the table. In other words, we need to locate a match in column E, then retrieve a value from a column to the left. This is one of those problems that is...Read more

In this example, the goal is to look up a number with a certain amount of allowed tolerance, defined as n. In other words, with a given lookup number we are trying to find a number in a set of data that is ± n. In the worksheet shown, the number to find is in...Read more

The goal in this example is to display the last 3 valid entries from the table shown, where "valid" is defined as a temperature of less than 75 in the "Temp" column. At a high level, the FILTER function is used to filter entries based on a logical test, and the INDEX function is used to extract...Read more

In the example worksheet, column D contains a date when a task is completed. If the task is not yet complete, the cell in column D will be empty (blank). In column E, the goal is to display the word "Open" when there is no date in column D. If there is a date in column D, the...Read more

In this example, the goal is to extract common values that are shared in the two lists as shown. Values for List 1 appear in the range B5:B16 and values for List 2 appear in the range D5:D14. Although the lists in this example are quite short to make the problem easy to understand, the same...Read more

The SUMPRODUCT function multiplies arrays together and returns the sum of products. The trick is to use simple array expressions to "cancel out" the irrelevant rates in the table. SUMPRODUCT then simply sums the rates that remain.

Working from...Read more

In this example, the goal is to count the number of cells in a range that do not contain errors. The best way to solve this problem is to use the SUMPRODUCT function together with the ISERROR function. You can also use the COUNTIF function or COUNTIFS function to exclude specific errors...Read more

The aim is to mark records with an "x" if a score is greater than 80 and leave the cell blank if the score is less than 80. This can be achieved using the IF function in Excel.

IF function

The IF function runs a logical test and returns one...Read more

At the core, this formula uses an array operation to generate an array of letters from the input text, translates each letter individually to a number, then joins all numbers together again and returns the output as a string.

To parse the input string into...Read more

The goal in this example is to count cells in a range that do not contain a given number of strings. The cells to evaluate are in the named range data (B5:B14) and the strings to exclude are listed in the named range exclude (...Read more