The smartest thing Excel does happens in places you can't see.

Functions like FILTER, SORTBY, UNIQUE, XLOOKUP, and VSTACK transform static grids into real-time data systems.

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 ...

Navigating the world of Excel can sometimes feel like trying to solve a puzzle with missing pieces. If you’ve ever found yourself wrestling with the XLOOKUP function, only to be met with a chaotic ...

Microsoft Excel’s dynamic array function XLOOKUP() might completely replace VLOOKUP() and HLOOKUP(). Microsoft Excel’s lookup functions are powerful but often misunderstood because they have a few ...

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 ...

Microsoft Excel’s new FILTER() function is a great tool for reporting and dashboards. We’ll show you how to use it to get more done. Filtering is a huge part of many Microsoft Excel sheets, and ...

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.