What is a Table array in Excel?

Answer 1

An array is a list of related values of the same data type. Excel can deal with arrays and actually has some specialised array formulas. You can do things like in a single formula multiply corresponding values in two separate lists and total the result. You would type in the formula as normal:

=SUM(C10:C20*D10:D20)

Then press the Ctrl, shift and Enter keys, rather than just the Enter key. The formula will then appear with the braces around it to indicate that it is an array formula as follows:

{=SUM(C10:C20*D10:D20)}

That formula will multiply what is in C10 by D10, C11 by D11 and so on up to multiplying C20 by D20, and then total all the results in one single formula.

Answer 2

A table array is one of the arguments used in Excel's lookup functions, such as VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP. The LOOKUP functions search the table array to find specific information. For a VLOOKUP the table array must contain at least two columns of data and for HLOOKUP, at least two rows of data.

Answer 3

An array is a list of values that are in some way related to each other. It could be a list of wages or a list of sales or a list of dates of birth etc. When they are laid out in a table, it can be called a table array. A lot of functions in Excel use table arrays to do their calculations. You can also create array formulas.