#Excel Native 3D Ranges with the TEXTJOIN Function Plus Bonus by David Hager

In a conversation with Bill Jelen about the TEXTJOIN function, he mentioned whether I had tried using 3D references as arguments. I said that I had not tried native 3D ranges, and I did not believe it would work. Well, I was wrong (again). It does work, in spite of there being no documentation from Microsoft about that ability. The figure below shows the result in cell D2 of using this formula:

=TEXTJOIN(“,”,,Sheet1:Sheet2!A1:A2)

I continue to be amazed by the myriad of formula solutions made possible by the TEXTJOIN function. In a recent article where I demonstrated the use of non-contiguous ranges

https://dhexcel1.wordpress.com/2017/05/21/excel-short-and-sweet-tip-15-using-textjoin-with-non-contiguous-ranges-by-david-hager/

I now realize that the same concept can be used with 3D ranges. (Here is the bonus!) In fact, that 3D range can be in ANOTHER workbook, as shown below.

=TEXTJOIN(“,”,,Sheet1:Sheet2!A1:A2,[TEXTJOIN_Native3DB.xls]Sheet1:Sheet2!A1:A2)

The example file can be downloaded here (Note: I did not include the external file, and I put a tilde in front of that formula)

TEXTJOIN_Native3D

Remember again, that you have to have the Excel version included in Office 365 in order for the TEXTJOIN formula to work.