How to transpose a values in a row to column using formulas… [Quick tip]

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This is interesting, I am in Columbus to meet one of my college friends. I remember him as a very meticulous person from college days. So it is no surprise when he showed me his massively impressive finance tracker last night. He has been tracking expenses, income, credit card payments and gas (petrol) consumption since 2008. Very impressive indeed.

Then out of blue he said, he has a problem with his spreadsheet. In this own words,

When entering data for credit cards, I use one column per card. But in my report view, I want to show credit card details in rows. How do I do this?

Something like this:

How to transpose a values in a row to column using formulas...

Transposing values in a row to column using formulas

If it is a one time process, my friend can use Paste Special > Transpose feature and be done. But this is no one time business. So lets understand which formula helps us do this.

  1. Lets assume original data is in $F$4:$J$5. Row 4 has card names & Row 5 has amounts.
  2. Wherever you want the out put, just list running numbers (1,2,3….) in a column. Lets say these are in cells D10:D14.
  3. To get the first card name, you can use the formula =INDEX($F$4:$J$4, $D10)
  4. To get the first amount due, use the formula =INDEX($F$5:$J$5, $D10)
  5. Now drag both these formulas down and you are done!

This is good, but I don’t like the extra column…

If that is the case, you can use the ROWS() formula to generate these running numbers for you on the fly. For example,

=INDEX($F$4:$J$4, ROWS($A$1:A1)) would work perfectly.

Learn more about: using ROWS / COLUMNS formula to generate running numbers.

Play with this formula

See the embedded Excel workbook below. Play with the formula.

(alternatives: download the example file or view it online)

How do you transpose values?

I love using INDEX formula. I use it for transposing values, tables, getting a cell value (or reference) from a large table, use it along with MATCH etc. It is a very versatile formula and I keep learning new uses for it.

What about you? Do you transpose values often? What formulas do you use? Please share using comments.

More on transposing your data:

If you like to transpose, wrestle or arm twist your data often, then you are at right place. Chandoo.org has tons of tutorials, material and tricks on this. Start with these:

Also, check out more quick tips.

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15 Responses to “Christmas Gift List – Set your budget and track gifts using Excel”

  1. [...] Christmas Gift List – Set your budget and track gifts using Excel … [...]

  2. JP says:

    I'm confused: if you spend $10, and your budget is $40, shouldn't the amount in the "Within Budget?" column stay black, since you didn't go over budget?

    In other words, since we overspent on the electronic photo frame, shouldn't the $8 cell turn red?

  3. Chandoo says:

    @JP.. maybe Steven is encouraging consumerism... ?

    I havent realized it earlier, but now I see it. If you unprotect the sheet, you can change the formula in Column I to =IF(G13=0;" ";F13-G13) from =IF(G13=0;" ";G13-F13), that should correct the behavior.

  4. JP says:

    Thanks Chandoo. I thought of making a shopping list spreadsheet for Christmas, but this is neat so I think I'll use this instead.

  5. chrisham says:

    Chandoo & Steven thanks for this spreadsheet. But for the sake of a person who has been staring at this megaformula in vain for the last 40 mins and not afraid to ask, would it be possible for you to walk us through the logic used here?

    =SUM(SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET($K$13:$K$62,ROW($K$13:$K$62)-MIN(ROW($K$13:$K$62)),0,1)),--($K$13:$K$62="-"))+SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET($K$13:$K$62,ROW($K$13:$K$62)-MIN(ROW($K$13:$K$62)),0,1)),--($K$13:$K$62="0")))&" / "&SUBTOTAL(2,$G$13:$G$62)

  6. Tea Bag.. says:

    Thanks Chandoo.. This is one of the best budget spreadsheets I've ever seen.. The Arrays are out of this world!! And it's FREE!!
    Chandoo, can you tell us more about Steven? Does he have his own site?

  7. Steven says:

    JP, I think Chandoo changed it when he changed the currency formatting from £ to $, a negative figure is a good thing in this case. But don't change the formulas, the overbudget and under budget won't work properly if you do. Also Chandoo I think you've accidentally broke the conditional formatting for the alternating row colouring the formula is different to the version I sent you. As for the megaformula chrisham, it gave me a headache trying to get it all working, so I will let Chandoo talk you through it.

  8. savithri says:

    Hi,
    In cells I6 and I7, I understand that subtotal together with offset function returns an array of ones after which, the sumproduct function gives the desired result.
    But I’m not able to figure out the reason for using an array in I8 to return the most expensive gift.
    Can’t the formula be just
    “=VLOOKUP(SUBTOTAL(4,$G$13:$G$62),$G$13:$J$62,4,0)”

  9. Steven says:

    Savithri, Cell I8 needs the array, if the formula was “=VLOOKUP(SUBTOTAL(4,$G$13:$G$62),$G$13:$J$62,4,0)” it would find the highest price from the filtered range (i.e. highest actual in filtered range is $50) BUT then return the first person with that actual, not looking in just the filtered range (so first person on the list with a $50 actual.)
    To see what I mean, change the formula, then change all the actuals to $50 then filter for baby, it lists the first name on the list.
    But a good question 🙂

  10. savithri says:

    Thank you. I now realise that the array is used to get the ‘filtered range’ instead of the entire range, as table array for look up value.

  11. AprMarie7 says:

    this looks like an awesome excel sheet!! is there anyway i can get it emailed to me unprotected? for some reason, i am unable to download it 🙁 help!!

  12. Danny says:

    Hi I also can not download to a mac as the sheet is protected any help would be great

  13. [...] to send her a pricey present. Rather, send a card with a picture of your child. Here’s a cool Excel sheet that will help you estimate your budget per person and let you track [...]

  14. [...] husband and I pour/poor over the Christmas spreadsheet (yes, I do know how dorky that sounds, but we’re not the only ones!), figuring out who should give what to whom. We live at a distance from most of our family, so it [...]

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