How to Take the First Rows with TAKE in Excel

Keep just the first or last rows of a list with TAKE — opening entries, a rolling total of the latest rows, and the latest big expense.

You will learn to

• Take the first rows and chosen columns of a range
• Take the last rows with a negative number
• Take the last row of a filtered list

How it works

TAKE(array, rows, [columns]) keeps rows or columns from the start or end of an array. =TAKE(B2:C11,4) returns the first four rows; a negative number counts from the end, so =TAKE(C2:C11,-5) returns the last five values — wrap it in SUM for a rolling total of the latest entries.

TAKE is especially useful on top of other dynamic-array formulas. =TAKE(FILTER(B2:C11,C2:C11>100),-1) filters a chronological ledger to large expenses and keeps only the last one, the most recent. If you ask for more rows than exist, TAKE simply returns them all.

=SUM(TAKE(C2:C11,-5))