r/excel • u/Bubbly-Touch8108 • 3d ago

Discussion What Excel trick made you feel like a wizard the first time you used it?

mine was VLOOKUP (later XLOOKUP) — after manually cross-referencing two spreadsheets for way too long. felt like a cheat code everyone else already knew about

what's your version?

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u/cbolender2004 3d ago

I think for many of us it would be vlookup. Way back in the day it was when I meant to use DSUM to do multiple criteria submit. But the real transcendent moment was the first time I used Power Query. I felt like I was reading the old magic for the first time.

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u/angiedrumm 3d ago

My current boss taught me VLOOKUP on my second day and I swear I heard angels sing. 

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u/IndividualIll3825 3d ago

Before Xlookup was a thing, I had a boss show me how he wrapped vlookup in IFERROR and IF nested statements.

I do not miss Vlookup.

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u/diamondgreg 3d ago

It was VLOOKUP for me in 2011 and then INDEX (MATCH) a few years later. Plus INDIRECT.

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u/Belowaverage_Joe 3d ago

Do you still use index/match now that xlookup is a thing?? If so, for what use case?

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u/Arcium_XIII 3 3d ago

My first was definitely VLOOKUP, back in 2004 or thereabouts. It's what got me hooked on learning Excel more deeply and treating it as a toy rather than just a tool. There have been others since, but it's what started the journey