Microsoft® Excel® 2010 Inside Out

Using Arrays

Arrays are familiar concepts to computer programmers. Simply defined, an array is a collection of items. Excel is one of the few applications that facilitate array operations, in which items that are part of an array can be individually or collectively addressed in simple mathematical terms. Here is some basic array terminology you should know:

• An array formula acts on two or more sets of values, called array arguments, to return either a single result or multiple results.

• An array range is a block of cells that share a common array formula.

• An array constant is a specially organized list of constant values that you can use as arguments in array formulas.

Arrays perform calculations in a way unlike anything else. You can use them for ...