Excel Blog

Long-form guides for the Excel problems one exercise can't explain.

Latest · 16 Oct 2026 · 13 min read

VSTACK in Excel: Combine Data From Multiple Sheets

A stack aligns by position, never by heading

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Most read this quarter

  1. 1XLOOKUP vs VLOOKUP: Differences and When to Use Each
  2. 2Top 10 Excel Formulas Everyone Should Know (With Examples)
  3. 3Percentages in Excel: Margin, Markup and Percent Change

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  1. 15 Oct 2026 · Dropdown Lists

    Dependent Drop-Down Lists in Excel: Build and Audit Them

    Validation checks a cell once, as the value is typed, and never again

    COUNTIFS18 min
  2. 14 Oct 2026 · Date Functions

    Prorate a Date Range Across Months in Excel

    A month is not a flag on a contract; it is the overlap between two date ranges

    MIN, MAX18 min
  3. 13 Oct 2026 · Conditional Formatting

    Conditional Formatting Not Working in Excel? Fix the Range

    A rule only formats the cells in its Applies to box, and that box never grows by itself

    COUNTIFS12 min
  4. 12 Oct 2026 · Date Grouping

    Group Dates by Month and Year in Excel Pivot Tables

    Grouping a date field by Months alone puts every January on the same row

    EOMONTH12 min
  5. 11 Oct 2026 · Timesheets

    Excel Timesheet Hours: Sum Past 24 and Split Overtime

    A total formatted h:mm starts again at every midnight

    MOD14 min
  6. 10 Oct 2026 · Time Zones

    Convert UTC Timestamps to Local Time in Excel

    A fixed +1/24 is an hour wrong for five months of the year

    TIMEVALUE17 min
  7. 9 Oct 2026 · Gantt Charts

    How to Make a Gantt Chart in Excel With Working Days

    A duration in days is working days, and only WORKDAY knows that

    WORKDAY15 min
  8. 8 Oct 2026 · Lookups

    XLOOKUP With Multiple Criteria in Excel: Two-Column Match

    A lookup stops at the first row that matches and never says there was a second

    XLOOKUP13 min
  9. 7 Oct 2026 · Troubleshooting

    Excel Formula Not Calculating? Manual Mode and Text Cells

    A workbook set to Manual answers with yesterday's numbers and never says so

    SUMPRODUCT16 min
  10. 6 Oct 2026 · Power Query

    Power Query Merge in Excel: Join Types and Extra Rows

    A merge can add rows; a lookup never can

    XLOOKUP15 min
  11. 5 Oct 2026 · Checkboxes

    Excel Checkboxes: Count and Sum TRUE/FALSE Columns

    A checkbox is a value in the cell, not an object floating over it

    COUNTIF13 min
  12. 4 Oct 2026 · Fiscal Year

    How to Calculate Fiscal Year and Quarter in Excel

    A fiscal year is a column you build, not a setting Excel has

    EOMONTH15 min
  13. 3 Oct 2026 · GROUPBY

    GROUPBY and PIVOTBY in Excel: Pivot Tables as Formulas

    A GROUPBY result has no fixed address

    SUMIFS20 min
  14. 2 Oct 2026 · Calculated Fields

    Pivot Table Calculated Fields in Excel: Fix Wrong Totals

    A calculated field adds first and multiplies second

    SUMPRODUCT22 min
  15. 1 Oct 2026 · Unique Values

    Count Unique Values in Excel: UNIQUE, COUNTIF and Pivots

    "Unique" means two different things and both have a formula

    COUNT, COUNTA23 min
  16. 30 Sept 2026 · Text to Columns

    Text to Columns in Excel: Split One Column Into Many

    0️⃣ General strips leading zeros, and no number format puts them back

    TEXTSPLIT23 min
  17. 29 Sept 2026 · Advanced Filter

    Excel Advanced Filter: How Criteria Ranges Really Work

    A blank row in the criteria range returns every record

    FILTER21 min
  18. 28 Sept 2026 · Power Query

    Combine Multiple Excel Files Into One With Power Query

    Folder.Files is recursive

    SUM22 min
  19. 27 Sept 2026 · Rows and Columns

    Insert or Delete Rows in Excel Without Breaking Formulas

    Excel rewrites a reference by following the cells it points at

    SUM21 min
  20. 26 Sept 2026 · Hidden Data

    Remove Hidden Data in Excel Before You Send a File

    Hiding is a display property

    SUM34 min
  21. 25 Sept 2026 · Find and Replace

    Excel Find and Replace: What Replace All Really Changes

    The Replace tab has one Look in setting and it is Formulas

    TRIM29 min
  22. 24 Sept 2026 · File Formats

    Save Excel as CSV Without Losing Data: What Gets Dropped

    A CSV saves the display, not the value

    ROUND29 min
  23. 23 Sept 2026 · Working Days

    NETWORKDAYS and WORKDAY in Excel: Count Working Days Right

    NETWORKDAYS counts working days inclusive of both dates, so same-day is 1 and Monday to the following Monday is 6

    WORKDAY22 min
  24. 22 Sept 2026 · GETPIVOTDATA

    GETPIVOTDATA in Excel: Reference Pivot Table Cells Safely

    Clicking a pivot cell writes one of two formulas

    SUMIFS23 min
  25. 21 Sept 2026 · AutoFill

    Excel Fill Handle Not Filling All Rows? AutoFill Explained

    A double-click on the fill handle does not fill the column

    SUM20 min
  26. 20 Sept 2026 · Week Numbers

    WEEKNUM vs ISOWEEKNUM in Excel: Which Week Number to Use

    WEEKNUM's week 1 is simply the week containing 1 January, so it can be one day long or seven

    WEEKDAY22 min
  27. 19 Sept 2026 · Slicers

    Excel Slicer Not Filtering Every Pivot Table? Fix It

    A slicer is not a sheet filter

    SUMIFS20 min
  28. 18 Sept 2026 · Precision

    Excel Changes Long Numbers? The 15-Digit Precision Limit

    Excel keeps fifteen significant digits and writes zeros over everything past them, at the moment of entry, permanently

    ROUND25 min
  29. 17 Sept 2026 · INDIRECT

    INDIRECT and OFFSET in Excel: References Built From Text

    A normal reference is a relationship Excel maintains; an INDIRECT is a sentence about a relationship, and nobody maintains a sentence

    INDEX MATCH29 min
  30. 16 Sept 2026 · Regional Settings

    Excel Decimal Comma vs Point: Regional Settings Explained

    The same file totalled 577,574.80 in Munich and 1,526.95 in Manchester

    VALUE22 min
  31. 15 Sept 2026 · Hyperlinks

    Excel Hyperlinks Not Working? Broken Paths and HYPERLINK

    A Ctrl+K hyperlink is an object attached to a cell, not a value in it

    CONCAT and &27 min
  32. 14 Sept 2026 · CSV Import

    Open a CSV in Excel Without Losing Leading Zeros or Digits

    Excel stores fifteen significant digits and sets the rest to zero, so eighteen of twenty sixteen-digit references lost their last digit

    LEN26 min
  33. 13 Sept 2026 · Paste Special

    Paste Special and Filtered Rows in Excel: Paste Safely

    Seven prices copied, seven rows changed, one row right

    SUMPRODUCT25 min
  34. 12 Sept 2026 · Print Area

    Excel Print Area: Why Rows Don't Print and How to Fix It

    £175,698.65 of invoices in the file, £93,940.40 on the printed listing, and the £81,758.25 difference contained the two largest invoices in the book

    SUM26 min
  35. 11 Sept 2026 · Flash Fill

    Flash Fill in Excel: When Ctrl+E Guesses Wrong

    £63,500.00 of remittances went in, a six-line supplier report of £55,921.00 came out, and the missing £7,579.00 never appeared as an error, a blank or a zero

    TEXTBEFORE, TEXTAFTER21 min
  36. 10 Sept 2026 · Data Model

    Excel Data Model and Power Pivot Relationships Explained

    The pack's bottom line — £63,900.75 against £60,000.00, +£3,900.75, 106.50% of plan

    SUMIFS24 min
  37. 9 Sept 2026 · Unpivot

    How to Unpivot Data in Excel: Crosstab to Flat Table

    Q2 £59,043.80 plus Q3 £72,198.05 equals the £131,241.85 grand total to the penny, and all three are the wrong months

    INDEX MATCH23 min
  38. 8 Sept 2026 · Random Sampling

    Random Sampling in Excel With RAND and RANDARRAY

    The same four-invoice sample reads £11,166.80 one day and £7,228.40 the next, and the coverage cell recalculates from 27.76% to 17.97% alongside it, so the w…

    RANK21 min
  39. 7 Sept 2026 · Running Totals

    How to Calculate a Running Total in Excel

    The same fourteen movements produce three different "lowest balance this month" figures

    SUM25 min
  40. 6 Sept 2026 · Binning

    Group Numbers Into Bins in Excel With FREQUENCY

    One column of 14 resolution times produces four different answers to "how many closed inside four hours"

    COUNTIF23 min
  41. 5 Sept 2026 · Wildcards

    Excel Wildcards: Partial Text Match With COUNTIF and SEARCH

    The month's Travel line reports 1,624.30 against a 1,600.00 budget and real travel is 1,570.30

    COUNTIF21 min
  42. 4 Sept 2026 · Merged Cells

    Merged Cells in Excel: What They Break and What to Use

    Four SUMIFS across a merged region column total 177,500.00 on a sales column that sums to 459,700.00

    SUMIFS22 min
  43. 3 Sept 2026 · Blank Cells

    Blank Cells vs Zeros vs Empty Text in Excel Formulas

    Twelve branches, 355,000.00 of sales, and three correct averages

    COUNT, COUNTA22 min
  44. 2 Sept 2026 · Tiered Rates

    Tiered Commission Rates in Excel With VLOOKUP or XLOOKUP

    Ten reps, 1,389,990.00 of sales, 99,398.40 paid and 50,398.40 owed

    VLOOKUP26 min
  45. 1 Sept 2026 · Duplicates

    How to Find and Remove Duplicates in Excel Safely

    Ten rows, 39,488.00 of payment run, 23,081.75 of actual invoices

    COUNTIF20 min
  46. 31 Aug 2026 · Multi-Currency

    Currency Conversion in Excel With Exchange Rate Lookups

    One rate cell, three readings of one closed month

    INDEX MATCH21 min
  47. 30 Aug 2026 · Charts

    Excel Charts: Axis Scales, Combo Charts and Picking One

    The chart that was drawn showed revenue up 39.3%; the chart nobody drew showed ad spend up 59.4%

    MIN, MAX21 min
  48. 29 Aug 2026 · Circular References

    Circular Reference in Excel: How to Find and Fix It

    The bonus pool is ten per cent of profit after the bonus, so the honest formula reads its own cell

    SUM23 min
  49. 28 Aug 2026 · External Links

    Excel Links Not Updating? External References Explained

    A link to a closed workbook is served from a copy of the value stored inside your own file, so a source that has moved on shows you the last number Excel read

    SUMIFS17 min
  50. 27 Aug 2026 · Sorting and Filtering

    Sorting and Filtering in Excel Without Scrambling Rows

    Sorting is an edit and filtering is a view

    SORT21 min
  51. 26 Aug 2026 · SUMPRODUCT

    Excel SUMPRODUCT: Weighted Averages and Conditional Sums

    =AVERAGE(E2:E13) returns 104.91 because it averages twelve prices; =SUMPRODUCT(D2:D13,E2:E13)/SUM(D2:D13) returns 18.79 because it averages 6,000 units

    SUMPRODUCT19 min
  52. 25 Aug 2026 · Performance

    Why Is My Excel Workbook Slow? Fix Recalculation Speed

    Measure before you touch anything

    SUMIFS20 min
  53. 24 Aug 2026 · Percentages

    Percentages in Excel: Margin, Markup and Percent Change

    A 30% markup is not a 30% margin

    ROUND25 min
  54. 23 Aug 2026 · Forecasting

    Forecasting in Excel: TREND, FORECAST.LINEAR, Seasonality

    A straight line through a seasonal series does not fail loudly

    AVERAGE26 min
  55. 22 Aug 2026 · Error Handling

    Excel Error Values Explained: IFERROR, IFNA and #N/A

    Excel has nine error values in everyday use and they are nine different accusations

    IFERROR28 min
  56. 21 Aug 2026 · Comparing Lists

    How to Compare Two Lists in Excel and Find Differences

    =A2=D2 compares row 5 with row 5, not INV-2291 with INV-2291

    COUNTIF25 min
  57. 20 Aug 2026 · Multi-Sheet Formulas

    Sum Across Multiple Sheets in Excel With 3D References

    =SUM(Jan:Dec!E14) is a sandwich, not a list

    SUM26 min
  58. 19 Aug 2026 · Statistics

    MEDIAN, Percentiles and RANK in Excel: Statistics Guide

    AVERAGE says 263,791.67 and MEDIAN says 158,000

    MEDIAN24 min
  59. 18 Aug 2026 · Number Formats

    Excel Custom Number Formats: A Practical Guide

    The format is a mask: the cell holds 0.3125, the screen says 7:30, and SUM adds 0.3125

    DOLLAR25 min
  60. 17 Aug 2026 · SUBTOTAL

    SUBTOTAL and AGGREGATE in Excel: Sum Only Visible Rows

    A filter hides rows from you, not from SUM

    SUM22 min
  61. 16 Aug 2026 · Rounding

    Excel Rounding Functions: ROUND, MROUND and CEILING

    A number format changes what you see; ROUND changes what SUM sees

    ROUND22 min
  62. 15 Aug 2026 · LAMBDA

    LET and LAMBDA in Excel: Write Your Own Functions

    LET names the parts of a formula

    LET26 min
  63. 14 Aug 2026 · What-If Analysis

    What-If Analysis in Excel: Goal Seek and Data Tables

    Four tools, four question shapes

    PMT29 min
  64. 13 Aug 2026 · Cell References

    Absolute vs Relative References in Excel ($A$1 Explained)

    What Excel really stores when you type A1

    VLOOKUP22 min
  65. 12 Aug 2026 · Financial Functions

    Excel Financial Functions: PMT, NPV and IRR Explained

    The convention underneath all of it

    PMT24 min
  66. 11 Aug 2026 · Sheet Protection

    How to Protect an Excel Sheet and Lock Cells

    The rule everything else follows from

    IF21 min
  67. 10 Aug 2026 · Text Functions

    Excel Text Functions: Split and Extract Text From Cells

    The three questions all text work reduces to

    LEFT, RIGHT, MID19 min
  68. 9 Aug 2026 · Power Query

    Power Query in Excel: Clean Imported Data Automatically

    What a query really is — a recorded list of steps that re-runs on new data, not a one-time clean

    TRIM19 min
  69. 8 Aug 2026 · Named Ranges

    Named Ranges and Structured References in Excel

    What a name really is — an entry storing a formula, not a label stuck on cells

    SUMIFS19 min
  70. 7 Aug 2026 · Logical Functions

    IF, IFS, AND and OR in Excel: Logical Functions Guide

    What IF actually returns, and why omitting value_if_false writes FALSE into your report

    IF15 min
  71. 6 Aug 2026 · Dynamic Arrays

    Excel Dynamic Arrays: FILTER, SORT and UNIQUE Explained

    Spill, anchor cells and ghost cells

    FILTER19 min
  72. 5 Aug 2026 · Lookup Functions

    How to Use INDEX MATCH in Excel (With Examples)

    MATCH returns a position, INDEX returns a value

    INDEX MATCH19 min
  73. 4 Aug 2026 · Date Functions

    Excel Date and Time Formulas: EOMONTH, NETWORKDAYS, DATEDIF

    The serial number model — why 9 Jan 2026 is 46031, and what that unlocks

    DATE22 min
  74. 3 Aug 2026 · Data Validation

    Excel Data Validation: Create Dropdown Lists and Rules

    Dropdown lists in three flavours

    UNIQUE18 min
  75. 2 Aug 2026 · Conditional Aggregation

    SUMIFS and COUNTIFS in Excel: Sum With Multiple Criteria

    Why SUMIFS beats SUMIF even when you only have one condition

    SUMIFS16 min
  76. 2 Aug 2026 · Lookup Functions

    XLOOKUP vs VLOOKUP: Differences and When to Use Each

    The one-line rewrite that turns any VLOOKUP into an XLOOKUP

    XLOOKUP12 min
  77. 20 Feb 2026

    Conditional Formatting With Formulas in Excel

    Formula-based conditional formatting rules (IF, comparisons, averages)

    AND, OR, NOT11 min
  78. 29 Jan 2026

    How to Build an Excel Dashboard (No VBA Needed)

    Clear definition of what a “good” Excel dashboard looks like

    SUMIFS7 min
  79. 20 Dec 2025

    Excel Pivot Tables Tutorial: Analyze Data in Minutes

    Step-by-step Pivot Table creation from raw data

    SUMIFS12 min
  80. 15 Dec 2025

    Excel Keyboard Shortcuts: 50+ Shortcuts to Work Faster

    Formula editing shortcuts that save hours (F2, Ctrl+Enter, F9)

    SUM9 min
  81. 11 Dec 2025 · Data Cleaning

    How to Clean Messy Imported Data in Excel

    Quick diagnostics to spot text-numbers, bad dates, and hidden blanks

    TRIM3 min
  82. 10 Sept 2025

    Excel Formulas at Work: Practical Examples by Department

    Practical scenarios across Sales, Finance, HR, and Operations

    SUMIFS4 min
  83. 24 Aug 2025 · Excel Tips

    How to Troubleshoot Excel Formulas Step by Step

    Systematic approach to identify formula errors

    IFERROR6 min
  84. 7 Aug 2025

    Top 10 Excel Formulas Everyone Should Know (With Examples)

    Real datasets and scenarios for every formula

    SUM4 min
Daily challenge · Day 74

Build a sorted, duplicate-free category breakdown from a ticket log with UNIQUE, SORT and COUNTIF

A new exercise every day, solved in a real grid.

Solve today’s challenge