Microsoft cells out, crams multiple values into Excel boxes - The Register

Once a single-scalar home, spreadsheet cells are being redeveloped to handle many tenants

Microsoft has ended 40 years of single-occupancy for Excel cells and is now allowing multiple values to inhabit the same home.

"One of the oldest rules of spreadsheets: one cell, one value," said Jake Armstrong, senior product manager for Excel, in a LinkedIn post . "No longer!"

"I’m excited to announce a set of new features: Lists, Arrays in Cells and Nested Arrays in Excel."

For the time being, this capability is only available in Microsoft Excel for Windows and Mac Beta Channels. And it is opt-in.

To make the case for lists in cells, Armstrong in a blog post explained that each Excel project can have multiple owners.

"Traditionally, you'd need separate columns, helper tables, or text like 'Carlos, Henrietta, Jacob' packed into a single cell," he explained.