Microsoft One of Excel's historic rules has changed: a single cell can now contain multiple distinct values, which can be used separately for filters and calculations. However, the feature is still in preview mode.
Microsoft introduced in Excel lists, arrays contained in cells, and nested arrays, overcoming the traditional limit of only one value per cell.
The news was announced on September 24, 2026 and is initially available in the Beta channels of Excel for Windows and Mac. Instead of entering multiple information as simple text separated by commas or other characters, Excel can now maintain them as separate elements within the same cell.
For those who use spreadsheets in the daily management of clients, products, and projects, this is an interesting change. But it doesn't eliminate a much more common problem: the quality and structure of the data entered.
How multiple values work in an Excel cell
Until now it was possible to write, for example:
Ferrara, Bologna, Padua
within the same cell.
For Excel, however, that sequence remained essentially a single text value.
With the new ones lists, elements can remain within the same cell but be treated individually in supported operations, including filters and calculations. Microsoft cites cases such as multiple managers assigned to the same project or multiple responses from a form.
The novelty also includes the array in cells, that is, structured sets of values that can have different sizes and in turn contain other arrays.
Microsoft has also introduced new features dedicated to managing this data, including FLATTEN, HAS, HASANY and HASALL.
When it can be useful to have multiple values in the same cell
The advantage is especially evident when a single element belongs to multiple categories at the same time.
A customer may be interested in multiple product lines. A project may have multiple managers. A card may be associated with multiple classifications at the same time.
In the past, these cases were often handled by adding many columns, inserting text separated by delimiters, or building more complex structures.
The new lists offer one more possibility.
This does not mean, however, that using fewer columns automatically makes an Excel spreadsheet better.
If each project manager's role, email, phone number, and responsibilities also need to be stored, compressing all this information into a single cell might simply shift the problem.
The structure must depend on the subsequent use of the data.
A new feature does not fix inconsistent data
Let's imagine that three people use different terms to indicate the same product category:
- bags;
- industrial bags;
- packaging.
For those who work in the company the meaning may be obvious.
For a computer system much less.
If that data needs to be used to segment customers, update a catalog, feed a CRM, or prepare a newsletter campaign, the differences become significant.
Excel's new lists allow you to manage multiple values in the same cell, but they do not automatically establish that "bags" and "industrial bags" represent the same category.
The problem of data quality therefore remains prior to the function used.
Be careful when Excel powers other software
Many business papers do not remain isolated.
They are used to import products into an e-commerce site, update price lists, transfer contacts into a CRM, create segmentations for newsletters, or power other software.
In these cases, it is not enough to check that the file is easy to fill out.
We also need to understand:
- how the values will be exported;
- which systems will have to read them;
- what operations will be performed next;
- if everyone involved is using compatible versions of Excel.
A sheet can become more convenient to insert and at the same time more complex to integrate with other tools.
For this reason, the new function should be evaluated along the entire data path, not just within a single cell.
The new Excel lists are still in preview
To the October 1, 2026, Microsoft lists, arrays in cells, and nested arrays as features available to Excel Insiders for Windows and Mac.
This is therefore not yet a general availability for all Microsoft 365 users.
This element is especially important in companies, where the same file can be used by multiple people, computers, and versions of the software.
Before adopting the new structure in a working document, it is therefore a good idea to test it on a copy, verify the behavior of the formulas and check what happens when the file is shared or used in other procedures.
What this means for your business
Excel's new features can be useful, but before editing your most important sheets, it's worth looking at where you're wasting time these days.
A good starting point is to check:
- which cells are manually corrected before an import;
- which categories are written in different ways;
- what information is continuously copied from one sheet to another;
- which files require changes before they can be used by CRM, e-commerce or other management systems.
If every update requires the same manual effort, an Excel function might be the solution. Or you might need to reorganize the data, introduce controls, or directly connect two systems.
Technology comes after structure.
DigiFe develops projects of integration between management systems, CRM and existing software, starting from the actual flows with which data is inserted, modified and transferred between the various company tools.
