Microsoft Excel has new functions for importing text files and CSV data
Microsoft Excel has two new functions that allow you to import data from other files, without the need to use Power Query or other more complex tools. They are currently being tested in Excel for Windows and should be available on other platforms in the future.
First, Excel is currently testing an IMPORTTEXT function to import external text files, in formats such as plain text (TXT), comma-separated values (CSV), or tab-separated values (TSV). This is primarily intended for importing CSV databases into your spreadsheet as a dynamic table, but it also works with other data formats.
The only required parameter is a file path, but there are a few additional options for parsing the entered text. There is a setting to set the delimiter character, in case you are loading a CSV file or other data with values separated by delimiters. You can also specify which rows and columns of data should be included in the output, as well as the encoding of the input file.
You will be able to use it by selecting a cell, then typing =IMPORTTEXT and entering the path to your file. The result might look like this:
=IMPORTTEXT("C:\Users\corbin\Desktop\export.csv")If there are parsing errors, you may need to specify the delimiter, encoding, or locale in additional settings. You can also refresh the data from Data > Refresh All.
Excel also gets an IMPORTCSV function, which is just a shortened version of IMPORTTEXT with the best settings for most CSV files already applied. It is by default comma delimited and UTF-8 encoded, so you can just type the path to the file and (usually) not worry about the other options.
It’s great to see an easier way to import external data into Excel, especially CSV files that many other apps and services can export. This is, however, most useful in situations where the source data may change: if you only need the text data once, you can simply open the file directly in Excel and copy the contents into your workbook.
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As expected, Microsoft has also encouraged the use of this feature alongside the COPILOT feature. For example, you can import a list of tasks from a text file into one row, then ask Copilot to sort them into categories, with Copilot’s output displayed in another row.
The new IMPORTTEXT and IMPORTCSV functions are now available in the Microsoft Excel beta channel, if you are running version 2502 (Build 18604.20002) or later. It should be rolled out to the stable channel once the bugs are worked out, and I hope Excel for Mac gets it too.
Source: Microsoft 365 Insider Blog
