Forum Discussion
What was the moment you realized Excel was more powerful than you thought?
I’ll go first.
For me, it was when I learned about Power Query. I used to spend hours manually cleaning CSVs removing duplicates, reordering columns, splitting names, etc. I thought that was just how things worked.
Then I stumbled upon Power Query. One week later, all that tedious work became a one click refresh. That’s when it clicked:
Excel isn’t just a calculator. It’s an engine. And I had been driving it like a bicycle.
Curious what was your “mind blown” moment with Excel?
Could be a formula, a trick, or even a mindset shift.
5 Replies
IMHO, Excel always gave lot of possibilities in addition to usage it as calculator. Lot of other functions with tips and tricks of using them not standard way. Which with time becomes more or less standard way. VBA was and is on the top. Each new functionality added more flexibility and possibilities. Introduction of data model (Gemini project, now Power Pivot) with Power View (retired with introduction of Power BI). Next Data Explorer (now Power Query). Next introduction of Turing-complete formula language (Lambdas, dynamic arrays), Office.js, Office Scripts, Python in Excel.
Is it boarding complete? Nope, we are looking for improvements of existing functionality and introduction of new one/
There have been no moments of blinding revelation for me but when LAMBDA appeared, with its claims of Turing completeness, I set out to test the functionality by implementing some of the more complex algorithms that might come to mind. I first implemented a 4th order Runge-Kutta algorithm for integrating ordinary differential equations and then went on to implement a Fast Fourier Transform algorithm. The tasks weren't easy and it still might be better to use a Python library routine, but the fact that it proved possible made be realise that we are now dealing with a serious computing environment.
Agreeing with both Hans and Riny. As an old-timer with spreadsheets (I was even working with multi-dimensional arrays in the early '70s, pre-dedicated-spreadsheet software, using APL)...it was first Pivot Tables, which enabled amazing summaries of extensive transactional tables--I still use it for my personal income and expense tracking workbook.
But then the far more recent introduction of Dynamic Array functions, enabling more nuanced summarization of data.
I've resisted VBA and macros, for the most part--granted I'm long retired from work anyway--but resisted those methods, because in general I find that if it can be programmed, it already has been, in one or more of the Functions and Tools built-in.
I agree with Hans. Pivot Tables were an enormous breakthrough in the mid-nineties of the previous century. I've come to love PQ as well but missed out on it's introduction as I had switched to a Mac in 2011, hating everything that was Windows based :).
A couple of years ago I moved back to the PC for 'real' Excel work and 'found' Power Query and Power Pivot. Now I'm using it all the time. And the (more recent) introduction of dynamic array functions was another life-changer.
Long before PowerQuery arrived: pivot tables.
