Forum Discussion
Is now the time to abandon the concept of relative referencing?
Patrick2788
"defaulting it might cause a stir"
Please take this in the spirit of humor. Your point is very valid, but a bit ironic given the topic and how enabling dynamic arrays required a major change to Excel's calculation engine default behavior.
Thank you for taking the time to read my reply and respond.
I do believe the introduction of dynamic arrays marked a turning point in the history of Excel - a major change in the calculation engine for the better. I can only speak for myself. Colleagues of mine that have used Excel since the 80s and 90 have not completely bought into Excel-based-on-arrays for lack of time to learn new skills, being content in one's current skill set, not being interested, etc. - whatever the reason may be. I still hear of columns being re-arranged to accommodate the limits of a base VLOOKUP, Advanced Filter being used instead of UNIQUE, helper columns used instead of LET, and plenty of other examples. The awareness of functions like FILTER, XMATCH, LET, CHOOSECOLS, CHOOSEROWS, TAKE, DROP is close to 0.
Clients are usually very open to dynamic arrays. Lambdas are usually received very well. Though I still have to talk people off the VBA ledge. There's a certain mindset that if someone doesn't know how to do it in the application that VBA must be the answer. I think anyone beginning their studies of Excel in 2024 would be wise to find a course specifically geared towards Excel 365 and stay away from macros!