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5. Advanced Formulas · Dynamic Arrays · 20 min

11. TAKE, DROP, CHOOSECOLS, VSTACK

Lesson 11 of 20
Task 1 of 3
  1. In E2, list the three best rows by test 2 (all three columns).

Lesson theory

Functions that slice and join arrays (Excel 365 and Excel 2024):

  • TAKE(array, rows, [columns]) returns the first N rows (or the last N if N is negative);
  • DROP(array, rows) returns everything except the first N rows;
  • CHOOSECOLS(array, 1, 3) returns only the columns you want, in the order you want; CHOOSEROWS does the same for rows;
  • VSTACK(a1, a2) puts arrays one under another, HSTACK puts them side by side.
Top 3 by a column: =TAKE(SORT(A2:C7,3,-1),3)

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