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Array Formulae: Minimise The Number of Array Operations

Array formulae allow multiple calculations to be performed in a single formula by treating ranges of cells as arrays. While powerful, array formulae can sometimes be slower than alternatives due to the overhead of calculating entire arrays even when not needed. The key to optimizing array formula speed is minimizing the number of cells and expressions evaluated. SUMPRODUCT is often faster than SUM arrays for multiple condition sums as it avoids array entry and can treat blanks as zero. DSUM can also be faster than arrays for some multiple condition sums.

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Leon Fourone
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35 views

Array Formulae: Minimise The Number of Array Operations

Array formulae allow multiple calculations to be performed in a single formula by treating ranges of cells as arrays. While powerful, array formulae can sometimes be slower than alternatives due to the overhead of calculating entire arrays even when not needed. The key to optimizing array formula speed is minimizing the number of cells and expressions evaluated. SUMPRODUCT is often faster than SUM arrays for multiple condition sums as it avoids array entry and can treat blanks as zero. DSUM can also be faster than arrays for some multiple condition sums.

Uploaded by

Leon Fourone
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Array Formulae

Array formulae are one of Excel’s most powerful features, although not always the easiest to
use. Look at Bob Umlas's excellent paper at http://www.emailoffice.com/excel/arrays-
bobumlas.html for many examples of Array formulae, and also Chip Pearson's page at
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/array.htm .

Single-cell array formulae are evaluated multiple times, depending on the number of cells
referred to in the formula. This can take significant time, and may or may not be faster than the
alternatives.
A range array formula covering multiple cells may be faster to calculate than individual
formulae in each cell (although the speed advantage seems less in Excel97 and Excel2000).
Because array formulae and functions like SUM which reference ranges influence the sequence
in which Excel calculates, you should try and avoid mixing row and column references or
overlapping array references.

Minimise the Number of Array Operations


Minimise the number of cells The main key to optimising the calculation speed of Array
and expressions evaluated.
formulae is to make sure that the number of cells and
expressions evaluated in the array formula is as small as
possible.

• Don’t reference complete rows, or more rows and


columns than you need.
• Use Dynamic Range Names where possible.
• Be careful with array formulae that multiply a row by
a column: this returns a rectangular range.
• Use SUMPRODUCT if possible: it’s slightly faster than
the equivalent array formula.

Array formulae SUM with multiple conditions


One frequent use of Array formulae is to do a sum with multiple conditions. This relatively easy
to do, particularily if you use Excel's Conditional Sum Wizard, but often very slow. Usually
there are alternative ways of getting the same result, but much faster.

See SUMIF example for a worked example of this. The downloadable FastExcel Sample
Problem also has an example which shows the method and the considerable time saving which
is often achievable.

Using SUMPRODUCT for multiple condition array formulae.


There are some advantages to using SUMPRODUCT rather than SUM array formulae:

• SUMPRODUCT does not have to be array-entered using Control-shift-enter.


• SUMPRODUCT is usually slightly faster (5-10%).
• SUMPRODUCT can be made to treat blanks and text as zero.

Array Formulae
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You can use SUMPRODUCT for multiple condition array formulae as follows:

SUMPRODUCT(--(Condition1),--(Condition2),RangetoSum)

where Condition1 & 2 are conditional expressions such as $A$1:$A$10000<=$Z4. Because


conditional expresssions return True or False rather than numbers they need to be coerced to
numbers inside the SUMPRODUCT function. You can do this using two minus signs (--) or by
adding 0 (+0) or by multiplying by 1 (*1). Using -- is very slightly faster than +0 or *1.

Note that the size and shape of the ranges or arrays used in the conditional expressions and
range to sum must be the same, and cannot contain entire columns.

You can also directly multiply the terms inside SUMPRODUCT rather than separate them by
commas:

SUMPRODUCT((Condition1)*(Condition2)*RangetoSum)

But this is usually slightly slower than using the comma syntax, and gives an error if the range
to sum contains a text value.
However it is slightly more flexible in that the range to sum may have for instance multiple
columns when the conditions only have 1 column.

Using SUMPRODUCT to multiply and add ranges and arrays.


In cases like weighted average calculations where you need to multiply a range of numbers by
another range of numbers and sum the results using the comma syntax for SUMPRODUCT can
be 20-25% faster than an array entered SUM:

{=SUM($D$2:$D$10301*$E$2:$E$10301)}

=SUMPRODUCT($D$2:$D$10301*$E$2:$E$10301)

=SUMPRODUCT($D$2:$D$10301,$E$2:$E$10301)

These three formulae all produce the same result, but the third formula using the comma syntax
for SUMPRODUCT only takes about 77% of the time to calculate that the other two formulae
need.

Use DSUM instead of multiple condition array formulae.


If you only have a few array formulae sums with multiple conditions you may be able to use
DSUM instead. DSUM is significantly faster than equivalent array formulae. The disadvantage
of DSUM is that the criteria have to be in a separate range, which makes it impractical to use
and maintain in many circumstances.

Use FastExcel AVLOOKUPS.


You can use the FastExcel Version 2 AVLOOKUPS function inside a SUM function to return
multiple rows and SUM them. If you are doing multiple conditional sums, particularly on sorted
data, AVLOOKUPS can be significantly faster than array formulae.

Array Formulae
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Array and Function Calculation Bottlenecks
Excel’s calculation engine is optimised to exploit array formulae and functions that reference
ranges. However some unusual arrangements of these formulae and functions can sometimes,
but not always, cause significantly increased calculation time.

If you find a calculation bottleneck involving array-formulae and range functions look for:

• Partially overlapping references:


• Array formulae/range functions which reference part of a block of cells that are
calculated in another array formula/range function. This situation can frequently occur
in time series analysis.
• One set of formulae referencing by row, and a second set of formulae referencing the
first set by column:
• A large set of single-row array formulae covering a block of columns, with SUM
functions at the foot of each column.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Array Formulae


Plus points of Array Formulae:

• Array Formulae are concise: You can eliminate columns and rows by packing the
calculations into an array formula.
• Array Formulae are powerful: You can easily perform many complex calculations such
as multiple conditional sums and counts using array formulae.
• Array Formulae save disk space: Using array formulae covering a range of cells can
reduce workbook size compared to equivalent individual formulae. Memory used does
not usually seem to reduce significantly.
• Array Formulae offer increased protection: Excel will only allow you to alter a
complete array formula block so the user is prevented from accidentally changing a
single formula.

Minus points of Array Formulae:

• The Black-Box effect: Array Formulae can be complex and hard to understand. Most
Excel users do not understand array formulae at all. This can reduce confidence and
usability of your spreadsheet.
• Calculation Overhead: Each time an array formula is calculated all of the virtual cells
needed by the array formula are calculated, regardless of whether this is required or not.
This may cause the array formula to be slower than a non-array equivalent set of
formulae.
• Requirement for all components of the array formulae to be the same size: This may
require the array formula to perform a large number of unnecessary calculations. This
problem frequently occurs in a SUM with multiple conditions problem. Sorting and
then calculating the subset range that needs to be summed may often make significant
calculation speed improvements. The SUMIF example shows how several hours of
Array Calculations can be reduced to under a second.

Array Formulae
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