Microsoft is once again allowing members of its Microsoft 365 Insider program test out a new feature in its Excel spreadsheet. It added a new function designed to get rid of empty rows in certain situations.
In a blog post, Microsoft stated Insiders can check out the new TRIMRANGE function, along with some new related references. The blog post states:
The TRIMRANGE function removes empty rows from the edges of a range. This can be particularly useful when writing dynamic array formulas or optimizing lambda functions for performance.
The blog post included an animated example of the use of the TRIMRANGE function. Excel users can get the length of any text entered into a column with the new function.
Microsoft added:
TRIMRANGE is also a great new tool for optimizing the performance of lambda functions that operate on ranges. It allows lambda authors to more tightly scope ranges, which can reduce the number of necessary computations.
Along with the new function, Microsoft is adding Trim References, or Trim Refs, for short, to the Insider version of Excel. This is supposed to be a better way to "call common variations of the TRIMRANGE function" according to the blog post.
Microsoft 365 Insiders in the Beta Channel can check out TRIMRANGE and the new Trim Refs features on Excel that"s running on Version 2409 (Build 18020.2000) or later.
The blog post does offer a reminder that TRIMRANGE and Trim Refs are considered to be available as a preview, and as such the results Excel users may get with these functions are subject to change before they are generally released. As a result. Microsoft does not recommend using this version of Excel in any important worknotes for the moment.
Earlier this week, Microsoft announced it was making some improvements to Excel in terms of how it handles the syncing of form responses. The new solution is now live, and the old one will be retired on October 20, 2024.