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This is a game-changer level feature. I have been dreaming of this and more other power features for a long while. Well, except for the Name Manager part in th

This is a game-changer level feature. I have been dreaming of this and more other power features for a long while. Well, except for the Name Manager part in their implementation, which seems to be a total disaster. I really hope this is a first version and they are going to keep improving it as they say. One should really define the functions in the cells and be able to reference them like =A1(2). The last thing a beautiful functional environment needs is globals. Super curious what the future of Excel holds.

interblag 6y ago
Totally agree - this could actually be a really natural bridge into programming for a lot of people whose advanced Excel skills already have them on the cusp. Name Manager though... Would be really nice if they could come up with some idioms for writing these functions in a multi-line format, with indentation, and give a slightly nicer editor. I realize that might be a bit tricky without changing the language syntax, but after the 2nd nested if-statement I find that I really struggle to follow someone's single-line Excel logic...
- zupa-hu 6y ago
  No need to change the syntax! I’ve worked with a financialy company that had really complex logic in there. Every time I had to touch one, I copied it into a code editor and gave it proper indentation, pretty much one variable at a line. Such clarity. I believe one could just paste it back and it worked - though I can’t recall for sure.
- pjgalbraith 6y ago
  They also announced the LET expression which helps a bit with the formatting problem - https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/excel-blog/let-names-in-formulas-generally-available/ba-p/1878903 https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/excel-blog/let-names-...
daxfohl 6y ago
Frankly Name Manager could also be way useful if they just generified it. Make it so that you can name a cell. Then,l you get named "variables" and, with your proposed lambda implementation, you get both named and anonymous functions in one. They are orthogonal features. As is, yes, Name Manager seems very ugly.
- zupa-hu 6y ago
  That already works.
  - daxfohl 6y ago
    Oops, you're right!
    - zupa-hu 6y ago
      I too was surprised! :)
      - daxfohl 6y ago
        I guess scope is the other thing missing to make it more programming language like. I wonder how you'd do scoping in a spreadsheet.
- darwingr 6y ago
  The disparity between MacOS and Windows on this point is particularly wanting. No scope field. No comment field.
daxfohl 6y ago
Actually what might be better is sheet functions. So like pages where you can define input and output cells. Then you top level sheet can invoke the "function" as like "=mypage(A1, A2).N8". That way you get local scope, etc, and even excel noobs could figure it out because it's very visual instead of being a mathematical function.

interblag 6y ago

Totally agree - this could actually be a really natural bridge into programming for a lot of people whose advanced Excel skills already have them on the cusp. Name Manager though... Would be really nice if they could come up with some idioms for writing these functions in a multi-line format, with indentation, and give a slightly nicer editor. I realize that might be a bit tricky without changing the language syntax, but after the 2nd nested if-statement I find that I really struggle to follow someone's single-line Excel logic...

zupa-hu 6y ago
No need to change the syntax! I’ve worked with a financialy company that had really complex logic in there. Every time I had to touch one, I copied it into a code editor and gave it proper indentation, pretty much one variable at a line. Such clarity. I believe one could just paste it back and it worked - though I can’t recall for sure.
pjgalbraith 6y ago
They also announced the LET expression which helps a bit with the formatting problem - https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/excel-blog/let-names-in-formulas-generally-available/ba-p/1878903 https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/excel-blog/let-names-...

daxfohl 6y ago

Frankly Name Manager could also be way useful if they just generified it. Make it so that you can name a cell. Then,l you get named "variables" and, with your proposed lambda implementation, you get both named and anonymous functions in one. They are orthogonal features. As is, yes, Name Manager seems very ugly.

zupa-hu 6y ago
That already works.
- daxfohl 6y ago
  Oops, you're right!
  - zupa-hu 6y ago
    I too was surprised! :)
    - daxfohl 6y ago
      I guess scope is the other thing missing to make it more programming language like. I wonder how you'd do scoping in a spreadsheet.
darwingr 6y ago
The disparity between MacOS and Windows on this point is particularly wanting. No scope field. No comment field.

daxfohl 6y ago

Actually what might be better is sheet functions. So like pages where you can define input and output cells. Then you top level sheet can invoke the "function" as like "=mypage(A1, A2).N8". That way you get local scope, etc, and even excel noobs could figure it out because it's very visual instead of being a mathematical function.