Forum Discussion
Dynamic Array formula not backward compatible
Unless I am getting myself confused, it is backward compatibility that is enabled by the SINGLE that inserts implicit intersection into the process, as was always the case for the traditional Excel calculation. Forward compatibility in which old versions are expected to emulate dynamic arrays will be more of an issue.
Mind you, I seem to be the only person on the planet who consistently used named formulae to bypass the Excel's implicit intersection trick and allow me to perform many array calculations without CSE. They work equally well as traditional or new dynamic arrays.
IMHO, there is no backward compatibility from using of these 6 or so functions point of view, you may see only result.
Compatibility works in the other direction. Anything your colleague does should be usable by you, even if the occasional 'SINGLE' has been inserted, but past versions cannot be expected to emulate functionality they do not possess.
Yes, I guess it makes sense that previous versions would not have access to the new functionality.
This is just, for lack of a better term, a huge bummer. What this means is that I (with my Insider Edition) can not pass on any spreadsheets with the new formulas to my colleagues (who have regular 365).
Very limiting until 365 gets the new array functions...
BrianGGG
- I have the same issue but I think there is a solution to this. I just did a small test by using Office 365 Excel Online version and that worked. The office version I used is from my customer and that even translated the Unique formula into a German one. I tried to also use textjoin and that also got translated as a formula.
Try it.
Kind regards,
Jaap I suspect there is worse to come. If you as a developer wish to provide solutions built upon Office 365 and your client uses Office 2016/2019 it may be years before you can move beyond the legacy techniques of relative referencing and copy down; we will still have to live with 'fills' when we really want 'spills'.
For me, after only a couple of weeks with dynamic arrays the thought of doing without SEQUENCE and FILTER fills me with horror. FILTER seems to be capable of replacing: LOOKUP; VLOOKUP; HLOOKUP; MATCH/INDEX combo, SUMIF, COUNTIF, AVERAGEIF, SUMIFS, COUNTIFS, AVERAGEIFS, MAXIFS, MINIFS. I am not saying it is always possible or that efficiency considerations will not determine otherwise, but it's a pretty impressive list for starters.
Not sure I catch that. Yes, compatibility in other direction works fine, in modern Excel appears SINGLE but formulas works. Backward compatibility is the question, it doesn't work. At least not always. Even if you don't use new functions of the modern Excel.
Unless I am getting myself confused, it is backward compatibility that is enabled by the SINGLE that inserts implicit intersection into the process, as was always the case for the traditional Excel calculation. Forward compatibility in which old versions are expected to emulate dynamic arrays will be more of an issue.
Mind you, I seem to be the only person on the planet who consistently used named formulae to bypass the Excel's implicit intersection trick and allow me to perform many array calculations without CSE. They work equally well as traditional or new dynamic arrays.
If I judge by how long it took for "mainstream" users to get the new IFS or TEXTJOIN functions, it's going to be a very long time before all of 365 has the new Dynamic Array functions.
It seems like it would be a great step forward if the dynamic functions were compatible with 365 as an interim step. 365 users could then use spreadsheets with Dynamic functions without error, but couldn't use the new functions themselves.
As it is now, I can't use any of the new functions in any spreadsheet that I am sharing with my co-workers ... none of which have Insider Edition.
BrianGGG
