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Excel

Excel formulas & functions reference

Microsoft Excel is still the most widely used analysis tool on the planet, and formulas are what unlock it. This section of the XLFormula AI library is a working reference to the functions that actually appear in real spreadsheets — from lookup and logical functions to dynamic arrays, financial math, and modern additions like LAMBDA and LET.

Every guide follows the same shape: a plain-English explanation, the exact syntax, worked examples you can paste into a sheet, common errors with their fixes, and best-practice notes. We focus on the patterns you'll use daily — building dashboards, cleaning data, reconciling reports, and automating repetitive tasks — rather than exhaustively documenting every argument. Whether you're new to spreadsheets or you already ship complex financial models, the goal is the same: help you write correct, maintainable formulas faster, and know when to reach for XLFormula AI's generator instead of hand-crafting one from scratch.

What you'll learn

Core concepts covered across guides in this section.

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Who is this for?

  • Analysts and finance professionals building models and dashboards
  • Operations, sales, and marketing teams who live in spreadsheets
  • Students and career-switchers learning Excel from scratch
  • Anyone who wants to stop Googling the same formula every week

Why it matters

Getting formulas right is the difference between a spreadsheet that quietly compounds errors and one you can trust for decisions. Modern Excel has changed dramatically — dynamic arrays, LAMBDA, and Power Query have replaced a decade of workarounds — but most teams still write formulas as if it were 2010.

These guides show the current, recommended way to solve everyday problems so your workbooks stay fast, auditable, and easy for teammates to maintain.

Frequently asked questions

Which Excel version do these guides target?
Everything is written for Microsoft 365 and Excel 2021+, with notes wherever a function is missing in older versions.
Do the formulas work in Excel for the web?
Yes. Every core function on this page — XLOOKUP, FILTER, SUMIFS, dynamic arrays — is fully supported in Excel for the web and desktop.
Should I still learn VLOOKUP?
Yes, because it appears in almost every legacy workbook. For new work prefer XLOOKUP or INDEX MATCH.
How do I fix #N/A, #VALUE!, #REF! errors?
Each individual formula guide has a Common Errors section that lists the cause and the fix for each error code.
Can XLFormula AI write these formulas for me?
Yes. Describe what you need in plain English on the homepage and get a ready-to-paste Excel formula.

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