In excel you can convert any range into a dedicated table object, which lets you give it a proper name, select rows/columns (with ctrl/shift+space), and use column names in formula (with `tablename[columnname]`). You can also load the table into powerquery to do things like decompositions or augmentations without modifying the original data.
^ seconded. If you learn tables with Excel you become a demigod, and if you learn Power Query with Excel tables you become a being of pure energy and are then tasked by management to fix every data problem in your organization.
