For a league I run we keep track of games played and w/l/t and calculate that into a ranking score. The player name is listed in column U and the ranking score in column AD of a fixed table. I then use an array formula to list the players in ranking order in column E (then vlookup to pull in other stats based on the value in E for that row). Specifically I use this formula in column E:
=ARRAY_CONSTRAIN(ARRAYFORMULA(INDEX($U$4:$U$153,MATCH(LARGE($AD$4:$AD$153-ROW($AD$4:$AD$153)/COUNT($AD$4:$AD$153),ROW(E72)-ROW(E$4)+1),$AD$4:$AD$153-ROW($AD$4:$AD$153)/COUNT($AD$4:$AD$153),0))), 1, 1)
I need to be able to add players to the table in U:AD without having to edit the formula every time, i.e. from $U4:$U153 and $AD$4:$AD$153 to $U4:$U154 and $AD$4:$AD$154 in all the various places in the formula then copy the new formula all the way down.
Is there a way that I could define the range as $U$4:$U(last populated row) and the same for column AD in the above formula?
I eventually be using this in both Excel and Google Sheets so I would really like to avoid scripting. First I'm looking to solve this for Google Sheets.
Here is a copy of the sheet I am working on.
The answer for the Google sheet that you shared.
skip to the end for the simple solution
I used the indirect method by entering a formula in E1 that counts the AD column for player stats and adds 3 to get the last row. (I was going create the full range AD4:AD?? but you also have U4:U73 in the formula)
=counta(AD4:AD)+3
I then changed your formula use indirect, indirect("$AD$4:AD"&E$1), to reference the last row number in cell E1 to create the required range.
=iferror(ARRAY_CONSTRAIN(ARRAYFORMULA(INDEX(indirect("$U$4:U"&E$1),MATCH(LARGE(indirect("$AD$4:AD"&E$1)-ROW(indirect("$AD$4:AD"&E$1))/COUNT(indirect("$AD$4:$AD"&E$1)),ROW(E4)-ROW(E$4)+1),indirect("$AD$4:$AD"&E$1)-ROW(indirect("$AD$4:$AD"&E$1))/COUNT(indirect("$AD$4:AD"&E$1)),0))), 1, 1),"")
I discovered by accident that if you remove the ARRAY_CONSTRAIN from your formula and change U4:U73 to U4:AC73 then the formula will populate the scores to the right of your formula where you currently have vlookups. I put an example of this in E4 but note that you will have to delete the vlookup formulas if you want to fill the formula down otherwise it will show REF
I also added iferror so that the formula can be copied to the same row as the end of the "open slots" in column A without showing errors.
Also, I got to this point and was thinking that since you're using Google Sheets, a better way to do this could be to use the QUERY function to pull the data and also sort it using ORDER BY with a single formula in cell E4.
I've not really used the QUERY function but maybe it's time to learn.
EDIT
Turns out it doesn't take much learning
=QUERY(U4:AD,"SELECT U,V,W,X,Y,Z,AA,AB,AC ORDER BY AD DESC")
Put the formula above in cell E4 and delete everything beneath and scores to the right and you're done. you'll notice that there is no indirect because Google understands that you don't want the blank rows.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16IclEmKwDFdInIAZhH2vt-tLJ5pbwX06jv9xrUXwhnY/edit?usp=sharing