Introducing the New LET Function in Excel

Introduction

In a previous post, I talked about the different ways you could create a football league table in Excel. Rather than show just one way, I wanted you to be able to see the old and new ways of doing it. Since dynamic array capabilities were unveiled, it has unravelled a plethora of possibilities with how Excel can be used.

Here, we are going to look at the new LET function. It is only available in beta versions of Excel at the moment, but it’s worth checking out because it will challenge your existing way of writing formulas.

If you have any experience with programming languages, you’ll probably be aware of the concept of a variable. A variable is a pre-defined name used to store information that is typically referenced multiple times throughout a coding script.

Based on this very concept, LET effectively allows you to use variables in formulas.

This is the syntax:

LET(name1,name_value1,calculation_or_name2…

name1 is the name of the first assigned value.

name_value1 is the value assigned to name1.

calculation_or_name2 can either be a calculation or another name if you have one. If name2 is specified, then a value must be given to name_value2. You are permitted to use up to 126 names, but the formula must always end with a calculation, however.

Before We Start

Download the example workbook: LET-Function-Example.xlsx.

I will also be referring to a workbook from a previous post, so download it if you haven’t already: League-Table-Examples.xlsx.

Please note: the LET function is only available to Office Insiders at the moment. To become an Office Insider, you need to be running a copy of Excel that’s part of Microsoft 365.

Go to File >>> Account and change your channel (if necessary) to Current Channel (Preview).