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Get a preview of the 3 text functions and 11 array functions coming to your version of Excel very soon!
- Fourteen new functions coming to Excel (this blog)
- New text functions (TEXTBEFORE, TEXTAFTER, TEXTSPLIT)
- New functions for array manipulation
Posted by Andy Brown on 20 April 2022
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Fourteen new functions coming to Excel
It's not that often Excel gets any new functions, but 14? Truly these are momentous times. Here's a quick summary of the new functions (as covered in the other parts of this blog):
| Family | Notes |
|---|---|
| Splitting text | TEXTBEFORE, TEXTAFTER and TEXTSPLIT |
| Combining arrays | HSTACK and VSTACK |
| Reshaping arrays | TOROW, TOCOL, WRAPROWS and WRAPCOLS |
| Resizing arrays | TAKE, DROP, CHOOSEROWS, CHOOSECOLS and EXPAND |
If you've worked with arrays in NumPy using Python, you'll know where Microsoft got the idea for all of the array functions shown above!
When will I get these new features?
Microsoft roll out new Office 365 updates at different times to different users, but you can get an idea of your place in the pecking order by seeing what channel you're on.
Choose the Account option from the File menu in Excel to see which channel you're using.
I've bravely upgraded my laptop to the beta channel, which is why I can see the new features (even then I had to do a bit of coaxing to get them to install):
The About Excel button shows that I'm on the Beta Channel. Chances are that you will be either on the monthly channel (in which case you'll get updates soon after they go on general release) or the semi-annual channel (in which case you may wait up to 6 months).
It's always worth clicking on the drop arrow on the Update Options button above to check that you have the latest update installed!
- Fourteen new functions coming to Excel (this blog)
- New text functions (TEXTBEFORE, TEXTAFTER, TEXTSPLIT)
- New functions for array manipulation