Excel Tips - Don't Use Formulas! Use Ctrl + E Instead
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- Опубликовано: 21 сен 2024
- This quick video shows you how powerful the Ctrl + E combination can be in Excel with some examples.
Ctrl + E is a keyboard shortcut for flash fill that recognizes patterns in adjacent columns and fills the current column. This will not replace the need for all formulas but it can help with common tasks we perform in Excel.
Hello everyone, this video covers the topic of flash fill (Ctrl + E as a shortcut) in Excel. This will not replace the need for all formulas but it can be a great way to complete simple tasks that follow a pattern. I appreciate all the feedback and comments below and will look to implement your thoughts. Thank you for the support and wishing everyone a great day.
Yes, definitely not a replacement for formulas. It's also kind of dangerous. You assume that the information is a formula and yet when you correct the one of the last or first name fields, the name doesn't get updated. Worse, if you don't know this, you won't notice it.
As is, I consider it a novelty and not something I would want to have to spend time thinking about as to when I was willing to accept it versus putting in a formula. I would be much happier if it gave the option to put in the formula that it "determined" was what you wanted.
It is sort of like writing with a pen rather than with a pencil and eraser. You just know that if you use it, someone is going to want a tweak made.
What is the easy way for combine Birth (in cell A1) and Date (in cell A2) into Birthdate (in cell A2)?
@@BW022 Yup, this is pretty much worse than using formulas. Goes right into my "never use this shit" bin
What about the opposite?
The fact that it fills the fields with the current values rather than dynamically recalculating them means the process is human-controlled every time. Formulae take a little more time to setup, but will recalculate every time.
@creanero Correct. One DOES NOT actually replace the other, especially considering the distinct functionality...
Exactly. Ctrl+E is for this type of one off situation that comes up very often.
formulae?
@@neverhit17 _Formulae_ is an acceptable plural of formula however _formulas_ is normally used in general conversation like this.
I saw the same thing. Without dynamically updating, I have a hard time finding a use-case for this.
Been working with Excel for 20 years now. Did not know this… Wish I could like your video more then once
Ditto!
That's a relatively recent feature, so no :)
Flash fill was introduced in Microsoft office, 2013.
That's good introduction. But also you could have mentioned the technical name for this which is "Flash fill" in excel. This will help people to explore it in more detail.
nice
I've been using Excel for years and never saw this cool shortcut until your video. Thank you! I was set to retire this August, but I've decided to put it of for another year, just so I can use your trick at work!
Thank you =)
Let me know if there are any other tricks you'd like to see.
I'm shocked! Use professionally excel for years, but this one is one of the best!!! Thanks!
This is truly a godsend ! I had never heard of this versatile tip. Thanks all the way from Denmark !
@@suresh1957 Welcome from Denmark =)
Congratulations! You just broke the minds of my Teams group chat. Now we are all calculating how many hours we have collectively lost by not knowing this... :P Thanks for the video!
I have been learning Excel for a few weeks now and this is one of the best tips I have seen.
Thank you for watching. Let me know if you have any questions.
+TheMightyNoseGoblin You're so lucky to have found this tip so early in your learning process! A lot (most?) of us have been doing these things without Ctrl + E for _decades._
Wow! That was the most productive 2:30 minutes of my whole day! Thank you 🙏🏻 for sharing!!!
Really appreciate the comment, thank you for watching =)
🤯 MY MIND HAS JUST BEEN BLOWN BY THIS TIP!
While not as much *fun* as functions 'n' formulas, I have always *loved* CTL+E's magical instant-ness!
UNREAL.. this is just incredible.. more please
You've just Ctrl + E'd my life. Thank you 😊
That is brilliant! i've been using Excel for many years, but never knew about this 😃👍
Appreciate it!
Wow, the Ctrl+E is soooo powerful. Saved me a million years in using functions. Thank you so much for sharing this. 👍👍
I've used this often when doing data cleanup (prior to even basic knowledge of Power Query [much better name than "Get & Transform"]). The main problem I see with it is that it's not sustainable or easily extensible. It's great for quick and dirty (worked great on my 20,000 row sheets of data). But repeated use makes it quite difficult. If you're dealing with large amounts of data requiring lots of manipulation and repetition, Power Query is a much better way to go (in general).
Now, if you can use this "formula-by-example" approach, where you just enter examples based on data, and you can get a formula produced, that would be something. Regardless, it's always helpful to have a nice toolbox full of handy tools. You just need to know limitations and functional expertise (what works best in particular situations or types of data). Practice and experiment with COPIES of data (I call this play so it seems more fun).
I know, why the hell would they drop the powerquery name, if you need help online is easier to use powerquery name, is a unique identifier, the irony!
What genius! Incredibly helpful! Thank you.
Appreciate it =)
Wow, concise with no filler. I'm now a subscriber. Thank you
Brilliant - ctrl + E is my new mantra
Thank you for commenting =)
As always in Excel, the simpler the solution is (if there is a feature on the Ribbon or a shortcut key combo), the less flexible or useful it is if the data changes.
This is really really good. I used to think I a master of Excel. Never knew of this. Thanks for sharing
This is great feature I'm pleased to know about. I can see me using it in specific situations but it will never replace formulas if it's not dynamic.
Holy smokes. Never knew this existed and I have been using Excel for 20 years. Awesome video. Thanks. 😊
Thanks so much!
Thank you so much for this helpful tip. As a teacher, I can see where this application will replace CONCAT for extracting Given and Family names but also LEFT and RIGHT which I use to parse student numbers. Excellent tip! Great for setting up Mail Merger to generate test results. After sorting by score and inserting a row between grades, I was able to quickly make grade-based comments, and then delete the blank rows.
I love this simple method....Thank You
Thank you!
At time of writing, Flash fill is really great, until the source data changes and the non-dynamic flash-filled column doesn't update until you Flash Fill again. Only formulas are guaranteed dynamic. Also it only seems to work with contiguous cells and not with large gaps between columns.
I was wondering about that, thanks
And it only works on the right side. Plus, why in hell would one ever use a spreadsheet to generate a form letter? A word processor document that uses the raw data is the better choice.
Thank you love the bite sized video and straight to the point with example 😊
I've been using spreadsheets for thirty years and I think this is magic!
I currently use free version of WPS Office and they call it Flash Fill.
Wow….I don’t know about this before…thanks for sharing this tips 😊
GREAT explanation! I'm an excel noob and this was quick and to the point. Thank you!
Thank you!
Soon Excel will do what we think. I've said it often, it's an amazing program that I wish I knew more about.
Really appreciate the comment.
OMG! You have just made my life a bzillion times easier!!!!
Hey wanted to say thank you for the super chats =)
Let me know if you have any content topics you want me to cover and thank you for watching.
Thanks, it looks good. One condition needs to be added. This function works in the adjacent column/s and to ensure there are no blank columns in between
Thank you for the feedback I made an updated video explaining in more detail. Hope you have a great weekend =)
I have a hard time remembering formulas. Thank you for this!
Formulae. I am not at all surprised you struggle, you are very probably an "American".
Holy crap THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!!
A spectacular shortcut that I wish I would have learned about years ago! I will share this with my team and look for other videos from you. Great presentation, and in the perfect amount of time to make the point. I've read through many of the comments and learned there are some limitations (like when the data changes, the values don't update which is also helpful to know. Well done!
Thank you for the comment =)
You don't have to ask for a subscribe, I find it very helpful.
When I was splitting time that didn't allow me to use Textsplit for some reason.... this would've saved me more time than I am willing to admit.... Thank you
Thank you for commenting
This tip has changed my life! Thank you
Thank you mr. Career for that. This is very powerful
Really appreciate the comment =)
@@CareerSolutionsforTodayThanks
I'm guessing that Ctrl-E is not dynamic so if i add extra rows to my data table or replace the table with new data it won't update automatically? It is a handy tip but need to be aware of any limitations
Hey there, thanks for the feedback. You are correct in that it won't dynamically update. It is similar to pasting as values after a formula is entered. Helpful for quick tasks but won't replace need for formulas in many situations. Have a great holiday weekend =)
I knew that if I went to the trouble of entering a formula, I could copy that cell and paste it down the column and it would use relevant new cells to perform the same function but this Control+E is nice - Thanks.
Just WOW!!! I struggle daily with excel, this will be a game changer- Thank you
This is cool. I'm sort of a power user and didn't know about this.
Holy smokes, this blew my mind. What a game-changer it's going to be for me. Thank you!
Well explained, thanks for sharing!
Thank you for the comment =)
This has made my life much easier. Great 1!
Thanks. As an educator this will be helpful to my students.
Absolutely amazing tips! Thanks!
Thank you so much!
Onenoff solution is helpful, i prefer formula for a repetitive worksheet. Great tip, i learned something new
Thank you very much. Good tip.
"Don't Use Formulas! Use Ctrl + E Instead" It seems many people took the title literally. 😀
Ctrl + E does not _replace_ formulas. It is a shortcut for those times when you need one off formulas that _don't need to be dynamic_ .
What a time saver! Thank you for sharing this great insight!!!
@@oliverphotography1 Really appreciate the comment =)
I feel like you just saved me a lot of time. Thank you
Really appreciate it =)
This is the first and onbly thing I like about Excel
I reckon I know my way around excel (formulas, macros, and all other advanced functions) but this was absolute magic to me haha how I never knew this before is simply laughable. Would have made my life so much easier back in the day when cleaning up massive data sets. I do need familiarise myself with all the new excel functionality though. Thanks for this 👍🏻
Thank you so much for the comment, glad this video helped =)
New to your channel from India, found it really worth it to subscribe. You have gain new one subscribed today. 🎉
Thank you and welcome =)
It's a bit of a useless option because of maintenance issues, if you use formulas things get sorted out by them self and if you use you have to do it yourself.
You got it, flash fill (Ctrl E) really helps with repetitive tasks in some situations but formulas have their place too. Have a great day =)
This is a great tip and has many uses, but in the first example you provide comparing the formula using CONCAT to this keyboard shortcut you missed the mark in my opinion. The formula will continually keep the data current even if the source cell data is changed. The keyboard shortcut doesn't do that and is basically just a shortcut to copy/paste the source values. Thank you for the shortcut none the less. I know it will save me time in the future.
Thank you for this feedback. The keyboard shortcut is meant to help with certain common tasks we perform but to your point formulas still have their place as well =)
@@CareerSolutionsforTodaythe real point is that you didn’t explain what ctrl-E actually does which is a vital step in understanding how to use it properly in a variety of scenarios.
I agree. Took me until the second or third example until I finally figured out what he was doing. He never did define it. It's basically copy/paste. He didn't even use scroll to do it in a whole column quickly. An ok tip but not very well presented.
@@CareerSolutionsforToday Yes. Great tip. But after watching the video carefully, I was not sure whether it was a copy/paste/one-time thing or if it auto-generated the formulas and stuck those in the cells. It could be either, but perhaps it is obvious to advanced Excel users (not me).
Although it wasn't explained, I dared to assume it was pasting in fixed data (not formula) because life too often offers the worst option.
If you assume that you'll be disappointed, you'll rarely be disappointed. 🙂!!
Now that’s extremely helpful.
Thanks for saving me an hour
@@littletv00 thank you so much as well =)
@@CareerSolutionsforToday you are welcome sir
Definitely helpful to people who don't like to memorize many formulas
Very clever..........i only used Excell many years ago to produce a yearly budget accounting for my household needs and that took me many days to get it together.......I'm not computer literate at all and only scratched Word and had a short dabble with Excell, but I have the books on Excell and Word for Dummies etc.
the last use of ctrl+E that i was looking for like crazy, 2:20
thank you sir!!!
Very useful.... Learned something new... Thank you
That helped me so much. Thanks.
Really appreciate the comment =)
This is amazing, thank you!
Thank you so much!
With real world data, it often requires double checking and adjustment. Particularly when selecting a substring from a string. After several manual entries it usually gets the right way to do the task, but if you have multiple rows of data, you still have to check that out for everything right.
Eureka! I wish I knew this decades ago...
Wow, this is a game changer.
Thank you for watching =)
best ever tip of my life!!!
Great 👍 thanks,
Love from India
Welcome to the channel, thank you for the support =)
Thank you! I can't tell you how many times I used text-to-columns and then concatenate and thought I was the boss!
I was born in 52...that's 1952...AD...by the way, and never got into this while going through life. However, I've done a lot of traveling to see motor races, and put together a spreadsheet of race venues. It covers states in the US, provinces in Canada, and any other country, which is a total of 215 venues. I used the formulas method, because that's all I knew what to do. Any time I add a venue, it automatically adds to the current total of which country, and the Grand Total. It was fun to set up, and "feels" like I made a program, even though I know that's not what it is. But, that wasn't my first thought when you showed what "Ctrl+E" is for. My first thought was, how the hell do you remember all of these shortcuts?
Thank you for watching and I hope the video helped. This stuff is my daily job so I have built up muscle memory over time. I still remember when a friend showed me VLOOKUP years ago and I couldn't comprehend it. Now Excel is one of my favorite programs and I use it all the time to built reporting templates and make work easier. Thanks for watching and if you run into any questions send me a comment and I'll take a look. All the best,
I guess you never used UNIX. Talk about shortcuts.
Simply a great no fuss tip - thanks
Holy sht my man. Been using Excel for many years and this has to be the best tip ever. Can you share a vid with the "Top ten Quick tips" for 2022, 2023, etc.? Sub
Thank you!
This is a great find. Thank you very much.
Good one, thank you for sharing!👌
Thank you so much!
Certainly enjoyed it. very good tips.
That's incredible, I like formulas but this is very useful for quick and dirty tasks when I'm not going to use the workbook over and over.. This can be a real timesaver. thanks for searching
Honestly, this is good. thank you thank you. I have subscribed
Wow. Can’t wait to try this
Thank you!
Thank you for explaining and usage of flash fill option
That was awesome! Thank you!
Thank you, really appreciate it =)
Wow that tip is literally gold !!
Thank you! Although I usually need the output to change when inputs are changed, added or deleted, this is another quick way to do something on the spot.
Great tip. Thanks a lot!!!
Thank you so much for commenting =)
I am from Pakistan. your lecture is too too good.
Welcome from Pakistan =) Thank you for watching.
I am pretty good at excel but have never used this. Thank you
Really appreciate the comment =)
Today i learned (not only Ctrl+e but also) concat. I always used =a1&" "&a2 but now i know an alternative :-)
I love control e, didn’t know it worked for dates too. Might be useful one day.
wow, that's mindblowing ! thank you for the tip
Thank you so much for checking out the video =)
OMG, where was this tip 15 years ago? I use data sets where this would be insanely useful. Thanks!!!
Note: Flash Fill (Ctrl + E) is only available in Excel 2013 and later.
Hello, Will, I am glad to welcome you to the team. Will there be anything else you need before we get started?
Hello Fred, I am glad to welcome you to the team. Fred there be anything else you need before we get started?
Thanks. I am grateful to your video.
Thank you for commenting =)
love this thing, save times. like excel just know what i want to do next. but sometime it did not give the right result, still need to double check.
Thank you for commenting =)
Helpful video, Thanks
Thank you for commenting
Excel is fun because of the formulas.
Hey there totally agree and I have lots of formula videos too. This is meant to show one of the quick shortcuts in Excel that can be helpful for certain tasks. Thank you for the feedback. I hope you have a great day =)
What sorcery is this!?? I am subscribed! 🤣😂😅
Love it thanks for the tip