{"id":2168,"date":"2015-12-16T20:32:17","date_gmt":"2015-12-16T19:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/?p=2168"},"modified":"2024-02-07T15:35:07","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T14:35:07","slug":"excel-array-formulas-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/blog\/excel-array-formulas-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"Excel Array Formulas Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An Array <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/blog\/top-excel-formulas-function-examples-to-get-better-at-microsoft-excel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Formula\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">Formula<\/a> performs\u00a0an Excel operation (math,\u00a0comparative, join or function argument) on an array or range of data. \u00a0This could be a range of cells, a worksheet reference or a defined name.<\/p>\n<p>An Array contains more than one cell, so you cannot perform an Array Formula on a single cell.<\/p>\n<p>To turn your formula into an Array Formula, you will need to press <strong>CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER<\/strong> which will put the squiggly brackets\u00a0{} outside the formula:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>{=MAX(<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">D13:D16<\/span>&#8211;<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">C13:C16<\/span>)}<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s break down the different Excel operations that you can use to create an Array Formula:<\/p>\n<p><strong>MATH:<\/strong> +-*\/()<\/p>\n<p><strong>COMPARATIVE:<\/strong> =&lt;&gt;<\/p>\n<p><strong>JOIN:<\/strong> &amp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>FUNCTIONS<\/strong>: MAX, MIN, IF, INDEX, VLOOKUP etc<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Let&#8217;s do an example of an Array Formula that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/blog\/cost-preferred-stock\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">calculates the maximum stock<\/a> value change over a four day period:<br \/>\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Z5h6FyQKp_8?rel=0 \" width=\"800\" height=\"400\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/MyExcelOnlinecomtutorials?sub_confirmation=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignmiddle wp-image-111468 size-full\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/1.yt_.png\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><\/a><br \/>\n<span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #0000ff;\"><a class=\"IRPP_minimalist icon-download\" style=\"color: #0000ff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Array-Formulas-Intro.xlsx\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"ctaText px-3 text-capitalize\">Download excel workbook<\/span><span class=\"postTitle px-3\">Array-Formulas-Intro.xlsx<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>STEP 1:<\/strong><\/span> Enter the MAX formula <strong>=MAX(<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>STEP 2:<\/strong><\/span> Subtract one array\/range of data from another array\/range of data\u00a0<strong>=MAX(<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">D13:D16<\/span>&#8211;<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">C13:C16<\/span>)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/max-formula.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Excel Array Formulas Explained\"  class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2174\" src=\"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/max-formula.png\" alt=\"Excel Array Formulas Explained\" width=\"371\" height=\"232\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/max-formula.png 371w, https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/max-formula-300x188.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 371px) 100vw, 371px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>STEP 3:<\/strong><\/span> Instead of pressing ENTER to evaluate the formula, you need to press <strong>CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER<\/strong> to turn the formula into an Array Formula which will look like this:\u00a0<strong>{=MAX(<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">D13:D16<\/span>&#8211;<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">C13:C16<\/span>)}<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/array-result.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Excel Array Formulas Explained\"  class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2179\" src=\"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/array-result.png\" alt=\"Excel Array Formulas Explained\" width=\"312\" height=\"287\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/array-result.png 312w, https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/array-result-300x276.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 312px) 100vw, 312px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>STEP 4:<\/strong> <\/span>By <strong>pressing F9 on the selected formula array<\/strong> will give you the resulting array of numbers (press CTRL+Z to get out of this mode when you are done checking the formula results):<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/f9.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Excel Array Formulas Explained\"  class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2177\" src=\"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/f9.png\" alt=\"Excel Array Formulas Explained\" width=\"252\" height=\"46\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/f9-results.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Excel Array Formulas Explained\"  class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2178\" src=\"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/f9-results.png\" alt=\"Excel Array Formulas Explained\" width=\"257\" height=\"55\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If we had to\u00a0get the above result using a non-Array Formula we would have to create a helper column which subtracts the Open &amp; Close cells and then enter the MAX formula to\u00a0reference these results. \u00a0This is double the work!<\/p>\n<p>Have a look at the following tutorial on the two methods:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Array Formula performs\u00a0an Excel operation (math,\u00a0comparative, join or function argument) on an array or range of data. \u00a0This could be a range of cells, a worksheet reference or a defined name. An Array contains more than one cell, so you cannot perform an Array Formula on a single cell. To turn your formula into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cos_headline_score":0,"cos_seo_score":0,"cos_headline_text":"","cos_headline_has_been_analyzed":false,"cos_last_analyzed_headline":[],"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[115,3,16],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myexcelonline.com\/meo-staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}