Forum Discussion
ONLY CERTAIN FUNCTIONS AVAILABLE TO OFFICE USERS
I guess you have perpetual licenses as Office 2019. Microsoft never positioned it as full functional software. It is upgraded from one major release to another, e.g. 2016, when 2019, perhaps next 2022. In between are minor updates. New functionality is added on regular basis only for the subscriptions. How often and which one it depends on subscription. In brief, there is no just Excel, set of functionality provided depends on platform and license purchased.
Bit more about that is here What's the difference between Microsoft 365 and Office 2019?
HiSergeiBaklan , yes I purchased the perpetual Office 2019 thinking that I'd be able to embed a sort command in my formula and save myself multiple steps. I'd imagine that of all the functions that an "Office" would use, sorting would be right up there among the top and therefore included in the offering. Unless, however, it was so obviously important that Microsoft would withhold it to drive their "subscription" offering. Everybody knows that subscriptions are more valuable to a company and command a higher multiple from a valuation perspective, so it makes sense they would try to maximize that part of the business. Would be curious to know how many people would think of sorting as a premium offering.
I do not consider SORT as premium functionality, that is basic one, just icing on the cake, which appeared due to fundamental changes in Excel calculation engine.
Money is always the point, but that's not the only reason why we have different functionality for different versions of the product. First one is platform - Excel for Windows Desktop, for Mac, for Android, Excel Online, etc obviously have different functionality. No one company has enough resources to support complex product synced for all platform. Cloud platform is much more suitable for gradual deployment of new functionality, that's another technology reason. And subscription model naturally supports cloud platform. Or vice versa.
Within subscription there is also "premium" and basic functionality. Full functional high level enterprise subscription has much more functionality compare to Home or Student subscriptions. At the same time some functionality for consumers is not available for enterprise users.
Again, SORT() and like is quite basic functionality for the subscription model. Another story such functionality is deployed step by step, the way from insiders to so called semi-annual channel could take up to one year. But you may always shift from one channel one another for the same money exchanging reliability on more modern just appeared functionality.