Excel - Web Functions

Excel Web Functions

ENCODEURL

The ENCODEURL function encodes a string as a valid URL component by replacing unsafe ASCII characters with a "%" followed by two hexadecimal digits.

Note: This function is mainly used for web requests in Excel web services and is available only in Excel for Office 365 and Excel Online.

Syntax:

=ENCODEURL(text)

Example:

=ENCODEURL("https://example.com/search?q=excel functions")

Result: "https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dexcel%20functions"

FILTERXML

The FILTERXML function parses XML data and returns specific data from the XML using an XPath query.

Important: The XML must be well-formed, and the function is available only in Windows Excel.

Syntax:

=FILTERXML(xml, xpath)

Example:

=FILTERXML("<root><name>John</name><name>Alice</name></root>", "//name")

Result: {"John","Alice"} (as an array)

WEBSERVICE

The WEBSERVICE function retrieves data from a web URL. It returns the raw XML or text data from the response.

Note: Only available in Excel for Windows, and security settings may block some requests.

Syntax:

=WEBSERVICE(url)

Example:

=WEBSERVICE("https://api.exchangerate-api.com/v4/latest/USD")

Result: Returns the JSON or XML response as plain text from the API (e.g., exchange rates for USD).