Excel

Excel is a spreadsheet program developed by Microsoft and is part of the Microsoft 365 and Office family. It provides a grid of cells arranged in rows and columns for organizing, analyzing, and storing data. Users perform calculations with formulas and functions, create charts and graphs, and build data models using tables, pivot tables, and Power Pivot.

Excel originated for the Macintosh in 1985, with a Windows-compatible version released in 1987. It gradually supplanted other spreadsheet programs to become the market-leading tool for data analysis. Since 2007, Excel introduced the Ribbon interface; the default file format shifted to .xlsx in 2007. The service has evolved to include Excel for the Web and mobile apps, and features like dynamic arrays and XLOOKUP in newer releases.

A workbook contains worksheets; cells support arithmetic, logical and text operations. Functions include mathematical, statistical, text, date, and lookup categories. Newer features include dynamic arrays, spill ranges, XLOOKUP, FILTER, SORT, and LET. Data import from external sources, Power Query, data types, conditional formatting, data validation, charts, sparklines, pivot tables, and Power Pivot are supported to enhance analysis and presentation.

Files are stored in formats such as .xlsx, .xlsm, and .xls; the macro-enabled .xlsm stores VBA macros. CSV and other legacy formats are also supported for import and export.

Excel is available on Windows and macOS, with a web-based version (Excel for the Web) and mobile apps for iOS and Android. It integrates with OneDrive and SharePoint for cloud storage and collaboration, and supports interoperability with other spreadsheet programs through import and export of common formats.

It is widely used in finance, accounting, data analysis, education, and project management to organize, analyze, and present data.