Excel EXPAND Function: Resize and Pad Arrays Like a Pro
The EXPAND function lets Excel 365 users resize a returned array to exact dimensions and fill added cells with a value of choice. Think of EXPAND as the missing piece when building report‑ready ranges from dynamic arrays. It takes a source array, returns a version with the exact number of rows and columns specified, and pads any new cells with either a custom value or the default error. This makes it ideal for standardizing array sizes for charts, dashboards, and exports. According to Microsoft’s documentation, the syntax is =EXPAND(array, rows, [columns], [pad_with]) and it will return #VALUE if rows or columns are smaller than the source, and #N/A in padded cells if pad_with is omitted. It’s part of the dynamic array family and available to Microsoft 365 users on Windows, Mac, and the web as of recent builds.