EXPAND 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

Expands or pads an array to specified row and column dimensions.

Syntax

=Expand(array, rows, [columns], [pad_with])

The EXPAND function syntax has the following arguments:

  • array The array to expand.
  • rows The number of rows in the expanded array. If missing, rows will not be expanded.
  • columns The number of columns in the expanded array. If missing, columns will not be expanded.
  • pad_with The value with which to pad. The default is #N/A.

Remarks

  • If rows isn't provided or is empty, the default value is the number of rows in the array argument.
  • If columns isn't provided or is empty, the default value is the number of columns in the array argument.

Errors

  • Excel returns a #VALUE error when the rows or columns argument is less than the rows or columns in the array argument.
  • Excel returns a #N/A error in padded cells if pad_with is not provided.
  • Excel returns a #NUM when array is too large.

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

Resize a 2X2 array to a 3X3 array and pad empty elements with #N/A.

Data
1 2
3 4
Formulas
=EXPAND(A2:B3,3,3)

Example 2

Resize a 1X1 array to a 3X3 array and pad empty elements with "-".

Data
1 2
3 4
Formulas
=EXPAND(A2,3,3, "-")