Another post inspired by the book 101 Ready-to-Use Excel Formulas by Michael Alexander and Dick Kusleika. This one is Formula #22 and covers padding entries with zeroes.
Category Archives: Custom Functions
Significant Digits in Excel
This post is inspired by the book 101 Ready-to-Use Excel Formulas by Michael Alexander and Dick Kusleika. Formula #10 allows rounding to a certain number of significant digits. This post shows how to convert that formula into a custom function.
Excel Range Name Conventions
You can name parts of a spreadsheet and then use the name in formulas and other Excel features. Using a naming convention make things much easier to follow and adapt in the long run. I will share some suggestions for naming ranges.
Does an Excel range contain sequential numbers?
I have created a custom function to check if a range has sequential numbers. The range doesn’t have to be sorted.
A Better SEARCH Function for Excel
The SEARCH function has a couple of issues that make it difficult to use. This makes it a prime candidate for a custom function to fix its limitations.
Excel Custom Function for a List
Excel’s Custom Lists are great, but you need to drag them to create them. If you have a list that you use frequently why not create a custom function to display it? This has the added advantage of creating a spill range that can then drive other dynamic array formulas.
Calculating YTD percentages in Excel
When working with YTD percentages you must be careful with the calculation. Adding up values or amounts is easy. Working with YTD percentages require a bit more work.
Custom Function to Reverse a String in Excel
When I started learning Python, I saw it had a Reverse function and thought, “I could do that in Excel.”
Using the Custom Month List Function
In the previous post I created a custom function that creates a horizontal list of months based on three inputs. In this post I share a few ways that you can use this list.
Excel Month List Custom Function
It is common in reporting files, budgeting and forecasting files to create a list of months going across the page. The custom function in this post can automate the process.
Excel and Ordinals
A recent update to Excel included ordinals as an option when you drag with the fill handle. A few months back I made a post about a Custom function for ordinals in dates. Dates are a bit easier because they max out at 31. I thought I would extend the function so that it handled all numbers.
Fixing the UNIQUE Function
The UNIQUE function in Excel has a problem when it comes to handling blank cells. Blank cells are treated as zero and if you have a blank cell and a zero in a range then UNIQUE will return two zeros. Also, if a cell has a function that returns a blank cell, then that is treated differently than a blank cell. Let’s create a custom function to fix UNIQUE’s blank cell blind spot.
Convert Day Text into Day Number in Excel
Excel uses a number from 1 to 7 to refer to the days of the week. The WEEKDAY function returns the number based on a date. Excel doesn’t a have a function to return the day number based on a text day like Monday. Time for a custom function.
Custom Function to Count Specific Characters in Excel
I have previously covered a formula that counts specific characters. Since it used multiple functions, I thought I would simplify it by creating a custom function.
Improvement to Excel’s HYPERLINK Function
Excel’s HYPERLINK function is not easy to use. You need to know a few of its secrets to get it to do what you want. Unfortunately, you can’t replicate the HYPERLINK function in a custom function, so we can’t improve it. But the next best thing is to simplify creating the reference you need as the first argument in the HYPERLINK function.
Excel Column Letter Custom Function
Sometimes Excel refers to columns using numbers. If you need to identify the column letter you can use a few functions in combination. Thanks to Marcus Small for the formula which is shorter and more elegant than my original one. You can also create a custom function.
Benford’s Law in Excel – Part One
Benford’s law is used in auditing to identify data sets that may have been manipulated or adjusted. In actual data sets when reviewing values the 1st digit of the values tends to follow a predetermined frequency. For example, roughly 30% of the values should start with a 1.
SUBTOTAL and Dynamic Arrays in Excel – Part 4
The SUBTOTAL function in Excel is quite flexible. The single function allows you to perform 11 different calculations. In this post we will amend the custom function we have created to add an extra column plus headings.
SUBTOTAL and Dynamic Arrays in Excel – Part 3
The SUBTOTAL function in Excel is quite flexible. The single function allows you to perform 11 different calculations. In this post we will create a custom function to summarise a data set.
Excel Custom Function to Return Unique Random Whole Numbers
In last week’s blog post I covered a complex formula to return unique random whole numbers. In this weeks’ post we will look at how we can convert that complex formula into a custom function.
Custom Calendar Function in Excel
A few years back I posted a series of three posts about developing a formula to create a month calendar in Excel. I thought I would revisit that and convert that long formula into a custom function using LAMBDA.
TEXTBETWEEN function in Excel
Excel has new TEXTBEFORE and TEXTAFTER functions. It doesn’t have a TEXTBETWEEN function. Let’s make one.
Custom Function for an Ordinal Date
A while ago I posted about creating an ordinal (1st, 2nd etc) for a date. With the inclusion of the LAMBDA function I thought I would create a custom function to simplify the process.
Custom Function for Age in Excel
Calculating age with years months and days takes several functions to create. Whenever you need multiple functions to calculate an entry you may have a good use case for a custom function.
Last Weekday of the Month in Excel
Excel has a function to find the last day of the month. To find the last weekday of the month you can combine a couple of functions. Here is a custom function that also works.