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

This quick video shows you how powerful the Ctrl + E combination can be in Excel with some examples.

Ctrl + E is a keyboard shortcut for flash fill that recognizes patterns in adjacent columns and fills the current column. This will not replace the need for all formulas but it can help with common tasks we perform in Excel.

[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.

[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.

[DPB]

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!

[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.

[EuropeanOnion]

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

[igalye]

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

[newyorkayanna]

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

[vincentbrown]

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

[philb]

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.

[TheMightyNoseGoblin]

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

[feedbackdt]

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!

[brentculligan]

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.

[yian]

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

[AlMiner]

🤯 MY MIND HAS JUST BEEN BLOWN BY THIS TIP!

[bukhariali]

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

[fbilgrami]

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

[christinerumanouw]

UNREAL.. this is just incredible.. more please

[jackcurl]

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).

[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.

[cm]

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