A “cell reference” means the cell to which another cell refers. For example, if in cell A1 you have =A2. Then A1 refers to A2.
Cells in the spreadsheet are referred to by rows and columns.
Columns are vertical and labeled with letters. Rows are horizontal and labeled with numbers.
The first cell in the spreadsheet is A1, which means column A, row 1, B3 refers to the cell located on the second column, third row, and so on.
Types of cell references
There are three types of cell references.
Absolute – This means the cell reference stays the
same if you copy or move the cell to any other cell. This is done by anchoring the row and column, so it does not change when copied or moved.
Relative – Relative referencing means that the cell
address changes as you copy or move it; i.e. the cell reference is relative to its location.
Mixed – This means you can choose to anchor either
the row or the column when you copy or move the cell, so that one changes and the other does not. For example, you could anchor the row reference then move a cell down two rows and across four columns and the row reference stays the same. We will explain this further below.