CHOOSECOLS function

Applies To
Excel for Microsoft 365 Excel for Microsoft 365 for Mac Excel 2024 Excel 2024 for Mac

Release notes

Current Channel

Monthly Enterprise Channel

Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel

Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel (Preview)

Office for Mac

Returns the specified columns from an array.  

Syntax

=CHOOSECOLS(array,col_num1,[col_num2],…)

The CHOOSECOLS function syntax has the following arguments:

  • array The array containing the columns to be returned in the new array. Required.
  • col_num1    The first column to be returned. Required.
  • col_num2   Additional columns to be returned. Optional.

Errors

Excel returns a #VALUE error if the absolute value of any of the col_num arguments is zero or exceeds the number of columns in the array. 

Examples

Copy the example data in the following table and paste it in cell A1 of a new Excel worksheet. If you need to, you can adjust the column widths to see all the data.

Example 1

Returns an array of columns 1, 3, 5, and 1 again from the array in the range A2:E7.

Data
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30
Formulas
=CHOOSECOLS(A2:E7,1,3,5,1)

Example 2

Returns an array of the last two columns from the array in the range A2:D7 in the order of column three and then column four.

Data
1 2 13 14
3 4 15 16
5 6 17 18
7 8 19 20
9 10 21 22
11 12 23 24
Formulas
=CHOOSECOLS(A2:D7,3,4)

Example 3

Returns an array of the last two columns from the array in the range A2:D7 in the order of column four and then column three.

Data
1 2 13 14
3 4 15 16
5 6 17 18
7 8 19 20
9 10 21 22
11 12 23 24
Formulas
=CHOOSECOLS(A2:D7,-1,-2)