LEFTARRAY

[RicoS]

LEFTARRAY returns the LEFT N columns (or rows or both) of an array.

=LAMBDA(array,n,direction,INDEX(array,SEQUENCE(IF(direction=0,ROWS(array),n)),SEQUENCE(,IF(direction=1,COLUMNS(array),n))))

Lambda - Last Cell and Split.xlsx
	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O
1	Original Array				Left 2 Columns			Left 2 Rows				Left 2 columns and rows
2	this	is	my		this	is		this	is	my		this	is
3	array	of	words		array	of		array	of	words		array	of
4	or	numbers	like		or	numbers
5	1	2	3		1	2
6
Sheet1

Cell Formulas
Range	Formula
F2:G5	F2	=LEFTARRAY($B$2:$D$5,2,)
I2:K3	I2	=LEFTARRAY($B$2:$D$5,2,1)
M2:N3	M2	=LEFTARRAY($B$2:$D$5,2,2)
Dynamic array formulas.

 

[Hans K]

Is it possible to somehow change LEFTARRAY so that one could use
=SUM(LEFTARRAY(B8:M8,A1,))
where A1 holds number of columns?

(Yes I know there are more ways to do what I want)

 

[RicoS]

Hans, I would suggest not! LEFTARRAY has been superceded by "official" Microsoft functions such as TAKE, or DROP. They would work much better for what you want to do I think.

 

[Hans K]

@RicoS
Thank you.
You are quite rtight =SUM(TAKE(B3:M3,,A1)) works fine.