Excel Tips - Don't Use Formulas! Use Ctrl + E Instead

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

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.

[@BW022]

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.

[@geraldboutin1674]

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.

[@sallyho146]

What is the easy way for combine Birth (in cell A1) and Date (in cell A2) into Birthdate (in cell A2)?

[@RJiiFin]

@@BW022 Yup, this is pretty much worse than using formulas. Goes right into my "never use this shit" bin

[@DriversFromHere]

What about the opposite?

[@TheMightyNoseGoblin]

I have been learning Excel for a few weeks now and this is one of the best tips I have seen.

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Thank you for watching. Let me know if you have any questions.

[@omnipop4936]

+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._

[@EuropeanOnion]

Been working with Excel for 20 years now. Did not know this… Wish I could like your video more then once

[@barbdunn8886]

Ditto!

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

That's a relatively recent feature, so no :)

[@asadmir27]

Flash fill was introduced in Microsoft office, 2013.

[@igalye]

I'm shocked! Use professionally excel for years, but this one is one of the best!!! Thanks!

[@creanero]

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.

[@nicadi2005]

@creanero Correct. One DOES NOT actually replace the other, especially considering the distinct functionality...

[@AngusNB]

Exactly. Ctrl+E is for this type of one off situation that comes up very often.

[@neverhit17]

formulae?

[@AngusNB]

@@neverhit17 _Formulae_ is an acceptable plural of formula however _formulas_ is normally used in general conversation like this.

[@ellisz5972]

I saw the same thing. Without dynamically updating, I have a hard time finding a use-case for this.

[@nitinthokare]

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.

[@PodDeep]

nice

[@GenerationXGaming]

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!

[@DPB1947]

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!

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Thank you =) Let me know if there are any other tricks you'd like to see.

[@AlMiner]

🤯 MY MIND HAS JUST BEEN BLOWN BY THIS TIP!

[@yian9082]

Wow, the Ctrl+E is soooo powerful. Saved me a million years in using functions. Thank you so much for sharing this. 👍👍

[@tjhills75]

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

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

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 =)

[@brentculligan9030]

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.

[@andischuff]

Wow! That was the most productive 2:30 minutes of my whole day! Thank you 🙏🏻 for sharing!!!

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Really appreciate the comment, thank you for watching =)

[@suresh1957]

This is truly a godsend ! I had never heard of this versatile tip. Thanks all the way from Denmark !

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

@@suresh1957 Welcome from Denmark =)

[@fbilgrami]

This is really really good. I used to think I a master of Excel. Never knew of this. Thanks for sharing

[@MyRoyalties]

You've just Ctrl + E'd my life. Thank you 😊

[@jackcurl2005]

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).

[@dafeac]

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!

[@vincentbrown4926]

Wow, concise with no filler. I'm now a subscriber. Thank you

[@karenbarry99]

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!

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Thank you for the comment =)

[@minderDOTorg]

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.

[@kmacdowe]

I was wondering about that, thanks

[@c17nav]

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.

[@philb4462]

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.

[@bukhariali71]

Holy smokes. Never knew this existed and I have been using Excel for 20 years. Awesome video. Thanks. 😊

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Thanks so much!

[@newyorkayanna]

While not as much *fun* as functions 'n' formulas, I have always *loved* CTL+E's magical instant-ness!

[@christinerumanouw8077]

UNREAL.. this is just incredible.. more please

[@gorflunk]

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.

[@wayneyadams]

Thanks!

[@a_little_bird]

GREAT explanation! I'm an excel noob and this was quick and to the point. Thank you!

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Thank you!

[@mohdjibly6184]

Wow….I don’t know about this before…thanks for sharing this tips 😊

[@miserablerhurensohn]

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.

[@cm3984]

Thank you love the bite sized video and straight to the point with example 😊

[@wayneyadams]

OMG! You have just made my life a bzillion times easier!!!!

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

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.

[@canadagood]

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.

[@PandorasBox2]

pretty useful in small stuffs but it's not dynamic so any changes and you have to delete and CTRL+E again not feasible in large dataset

[@TrevB_Wakefield]

That is brilliant! i've been using Excel for many years, but never knew about this 😃👍

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Appreciate it!

[@MadMonk67]

Holy smokes, this blew my mind. What a game-changer it's going to be for me. Thank you!

[@stevegabbert9626]

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?

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

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,

[@BartWolf-l1o]

I guess you never used UNIX. Talk about shortcuts.

[@janewalters9281]

Just WOW!!! I struggle daily with excel, this will be a game changer- Thank you

[@richardsiemion5903]

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

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Thank you for commenting

[@mchisolm0]

That's awesome! Thank you so much for sharing. Does this continue working if you add new entries above/below?

[@CalebAstle]

Oooo! I'll be using this today! I'm trying to find out, how I can have a pivot table target data from tables on multiple (specific) tabs. Any ideas for that?

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Hey there, thank you so much for the comment and for watching. You asked a great question and I plan to make a video on this in the future. However, to answer your question and for timing I found some existing videos on KZbin that may help you. This video gives a couple of different methods which might be helpful: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j6eagnWQjap3esU You can also try this video as well: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ppC8gWiAnqprqac Let me know if this helps and I look forward to creating more content that can assist. I hope you have an amazing day =)

[@aaayusharmaa]

New to your channel from India, found it really worth it to subscribe. You have gain new one subscribed today. 🎉

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Thank you and welcome =)

[@rotaman8555]

This tip has changed my life! Thank you

[@jamewoods3605]

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

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Thank you!

[@cefirod21]

Whaaats??? Just great! There's something like that for "compare between columns"?

[@gangleweed]

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.

[@sevenkorpse8156]

I have a hard time remembering formulas. Thank you for this!

[@simonhampson5082]

Formulae. I am not at all surprised you struggle, you are very probably an "American".

[@incub8]

Fantastic tip. I look forward to using this. How long had it been available in Excel?

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Thank you for the comment, according to Microsoft since 2013. Have a great weekend!

[@roseroney9520]

Thanks! Do you have any videos on basic home budget or checkbook calculations? Thanks

[@kennethmiller2333]

Thank you! I can't tell you how many times I used text-to-columns and then concatenate and thought I was the boss!

[@JeremiahPatsika]

This has made my life much easier. Great 1!

[@jontnoneya3404]

Interesting - great tip. Would have liked to have seen what's in the cell after CTRL+E. Is it a formula or just the raw values?

[@angelbear_og]

If you have Excel 2013 or later you could just try it.

[@Subjagator]

Raw values, CRTL + E is a fancy copy/paste

[@sayhi2kojo1]

AI I'm excel

[@abdullahbuxoo6944]

Thanks. As an educator this will be helpful to my students.

[@midwestlaserengraving644]

I feel like you just saved me a lot of time. Thank you

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Really appreciate it =)

[@30secinspiration25]

You don't have to ask for a subscribe, I find it very helpful.

[@giorgiokordalis4893]

from which excell version this feature is available ?

[@DerRumo]

So now I will have to change my "activate developer options"-Key in my Excel sheet at work to another combination. I think, this can be very handy for me in some situations. Thanks!

[@Van_Wilder]

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 👍🏻

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Thank you so much for the comment, glad this video helped =)

[@bejai1962]

Great tips! I especially like being able to separate data. When I download data from our database, it comes with so much junk in one cell I don't need for my report.

[@hawkins55]

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.

[@Jompa10]

This is so useful! Thank you! Is there a way to have excel automatically send reminders to emails in a cell about that row at a specified time?

[@Warhead-Vun]

Definitely helpful to people who don't like to memorize many formulas

[@bialikma]

Awesome tip! Can you please do video about resolving system of two and three variables equation ?

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Hey there, I would be happy to try and assist, I have a few videos already that talk about formulas with other formulas nested within them. Which formula or function did you want to know more about?

[@daveg5857]

This is cool. I'm sort of a power user and didn't know about this.

[@Soei23]

Soon Excel will do what we think. I've said it often, it's an amazing program that I wish I knew more about.

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Really appreciate the comment.

[@deborahbeatty]

Excellent. Now how about where you have a sum of columns in the first line but need to extend the same down 30 columns. Doing the click and drag used to work, but not so well in the current version. Will Ctrl E work for that?

[@oliverphotography1]

What a time saver! Thank you for sharing this great insight!!!

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

@@oliverphotography1 Really appreciate the comment =)

[@nixxonnor]

This shortcut seems to work only in some versions of Excel. It does not work at all in Excel 2010 for Windows

[@offdagrid877]

Excel is so powerful, I wonder if anyone knows all the commands and shortcuts for this application

[@1112GT]

Very crisp and clear. Thanks

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Thank you as well =)

[@jig1056]

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

[@alexiamaccon9712]

Thank you for sharing. Do you know what the shortcut would be if using a mac?

[@RJ-lf8ex]

I've gone through these comments and for the life of me cannot understand why there are so many fools that walk this earth. Great video. Succinct, clear, audio/video was crystal clear, explanations spot on. I have to admit I saw this pop up on my home page and I was reluctant but came out pretty darn amazed. Thank you, great job.

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Thank you for watching =)

[@TigerAce205]

I take concat + Value Copy Then paste over flash fill. Having handled over thousands of name entries, Flash filled can incorrectly autofill the combined names.

[@peterpesch]

Looks nice! Is it easy to undo this, if Excel gets it wrong? In which version of Excel was this introduced?

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Hey there, this was introduced in Excel 2013 and yes you can just undo it if you do not like the result. Have a great day =)

[@rameshd9038]

Thank you for explaining and usage of flash fill option

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

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.

[@Urugami45]

OMG, where was this tip 15 years ago? I use data sets where this would be insanely useful. Thanks!!!

[@albireo9]

Note: Flash Fill (Ctrl + E) is only available in Excel 2013 and later.

[@olalekanbello8963]

I love this simple method....Thank You

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Thank you!

[@clair9167]

What genius! Incredibly helpful! Thank you.

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Appreciate it =)

[@boorayyan9]

Hi thanks for your video, can you show me in simple steps how to do searchable drop-down?

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/d6isY2iNaNCcjK8si=7TtjGJ7QwWhkbv2T Try this one =)

[@austind.239]

the last use of ctrl+E that i was looking for like crazy, 2:20 thank you sir!!!

[@zoomingby]

Absolutely amazing tips! Thanks!

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Thank you so much!

[@pasmas3217]

One pretty important missing piece of information i believe is from which office/excel version is this function implemented. In other words back to which version is it compatible. happen to work or have worked at places that still have a very old version of excel. a place used office 97-03 my current place has office 2010 but i manage to uncouple my pc from the network controlled limits and installed the 2021...

[@MrGoodaches]

Excellent. I really like how you got to the point and taught something useful in a very short amount of time. Showing a few simple examples in process achieved transfer of knowledge very efficiently. Since I'm so impressed with my first visit to your channel I'll ask about a long standing frustration I've had with Excel. How can we get it to handle time? I've never figured out how to get Excell to add or subtract HH:MM:SS. I always have to convert to decimals, either HH.hhhh or MM.mmmm before doing the math. And I've never figured out how to convert a decimal answer to display as HH:MM:SS. Have I been missing something obvious?

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Hey there, sorry for the delay. So you are trying to find the difference in time you have listed as "HH:MM:SS"? Let me get back to you in a bit but I will take a look for you. Have a great weekend =)

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Hey there, I am working on a video for you today. To customize the video, can you help me understand what you are looking to accomplish with an example? So for example, are you wanting to calculate the difference between start and end times? Are you wanting to add HH:MM:SS to a start time? etc. Please let me know and I will work on an answer for you =)

[@Leo.Brodie]

@@CareerSolutionsforToday I just saw your question and I'll give an example that I've always wished I could do in Excel. Say I'm building an agenda for an event. I have the agenda item nane in one column, and the duration in the next column - say, minutes). In a third column I would like the start time for each item. I would put the start time in the top row. All subsequent Start times are computed by adding the start time from the row above to the duraction from the current row. Agenda Minutes Start time Welcome 5 8:00 Panel discussion 60 8:05 Break 15 9:05 End 9:20

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

@@Leo.Brodie got it thanks I will work on something for you =)

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

​@@Leo.Brodie Hey there, created this video to try and help. Let me know if it is on the right track. link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nnXHiKOdqrunrKM

[@SteelWolf13]

Now to figure out how to get a list of names alphabetized by first name first letter and have it do30 names per column and roll over to the next one. With a box to add the name and [click] sorted and added. Visual basic script is what most site I found say is required but they don't cover well how to make a sorting list.

[@philipjose8092]

Certainly enjoyed it. very good tips.

[@RoboBeaver6]

This is the first and onbly thing I like about Excel

[@elmiguel1405]

Wow. Can’t wait to try this

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Thank you!

[@henryallan9167]

Simply a great no fuss tip - thanks

[@skyguy4710]

Brilliant - ctrl + E is my new mantra

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Thank you for commenting =)

[@nobodynobody1235]

Onenoff solution is helpful, i prefer formula for a repetitive worksheet. Great tip, i learned something new

[@ArmandoReportes]

I was a fan of flash-fill until I noticed some oddities when working with over a thousand rows. The problem is that you don't know how the result is being calculated. Column from example is a huge improvement just by using power query.

[@1SGPARKER]

Eureka! I wish I knew this decades ago...

[@Jack74u2]

Any ideas on why MS choose the "E" key? For Excel, electronic learning or the Easy button?

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Not sure but it is the shortcut for flash fill. I wonder why Ctrl + V is paste it makes it easy being next to the copy shortcut =)

[@angelbear_og]

@@CareerSolutionsforToday Larry Tesler (Apple Lisa developer) described exactly why he chose those specific letters: The Lisa was the first system to assign XCVZ to cut, copy, paste and undo (shifted with the “apple” key). I chose them myself. X was a standard symbol of deletion. C was the first letter of Copy. V was an upside down caret and apparently meant Insert in at least one earlier editor. Z was next to X, C and V on the U.S. QWERTY keyboard. But its shape also symbolized the “Do-Undo-Redo” triad: top rightward stroke = step forward; middle leftward stroke = step back; bottom rightward stroke = step forward again.

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

@@angelbear_og Thank you for this great info =)

[@codxedi6340]

Can we do this to get percentage, average, ranks etc

[@faysalfaiq]

wow, that's mindblowing ! thank you for the tip

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Thank you so much for checking out the video =)

[@bothambothambashir7560]

I am from Pakistan. your lecture is too too good.

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Welcome from Pakistan =) Thank you for watching.

[@KinkyJalepeno]

Wow that tip is literally gold !!

[@BelalAlDroubi]

Holy crap THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!!

[@ooodey3924]

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.

[@CareerSolutionsforToday]

Thank you for commenting =)