New functions in Excel 2019

You have to dig around to find out what changes Microsoft introduced between Excel 2016 and Excel 2019. They would prefer us to use Office 365, their subscription based service that includes access to the latest version of the software. Personally, I prefer perpetual licences After all, it’s the model we use for selling our own Erlang software.

Here’s a list of new functions in Excel 2019:

• CONCAT()
  A simpler version of CONCATENATE().
• IFS()
  This is a new function that can be used instead of IF(). I was so impressed that I wrote a separate article on it. It allows multiple tests to be carried out within a single function and avoids the clumsy nesting of IF() functions.
• MAXIFS()
  This function returns the maximum value among cells specified by a given set of conditions or criteria.
• MINIFS()
  Similar to MAXIFS(), this functions returns the smallest number in a specified range that meets a single or multiple criteria.
• SWITCH()
  Another great addition, this has been inspired by its namesake in high-level programming languages. It tests an expression against a list of values and returns the first matching one. If there are no matches, it returns a catch-all value. This function is mentioned in a recent topic in the Excel Boardroom.
• TEXTJOIN()
  Similar to CONCAT(), this function joins text from multiple sources with each item separated by a delimiter you specify.

It’s worth looking through the spreadsheets you created with our Erlang add-in and call center add-in to see if they can be simplified.