Preview of Stocks and Geography, new data types in Excel

For more than 30 years, Excel's data types have been very basic: text, numbers, Booleans, and dates. The user had to assign meaning to the data, which often leads to errors.

But that is starting to change. Microsoft has introduced the concept of linked data types into Excel. The first two linked data types are Geography and Stocks.

This article describes the new data types, with examples of how to use them.

The new data types are being rolled out to Office 365 users this month.

Also see Excel help: Stock quotes and geographic data.