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Cell Referencing

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19 views

Cell Referencing

Uploaded by

jayblacks135
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A cell reference refers to a cell or a range of cells on a worksheet and can be used in a formula so that

Microsoft Office Excel can find the values or data that you want that formula to calculate. In one or
several formulas, you can use a cell reference to refer to: Data from one cell on the worksheet.

A cell reference in spreadsheet programs like Excel and Google Spreadsheets identifies the
location of a cell in the worksheet.

A cell is one of the box-like structures that fill a worksheet and each cell can be located by
means of its cell reference - such as A1, F26 or W345 - consisting of the column letter and row
number that intersect at the cell's location. When listing a cell reference, the column letter is
always listed first

Cell references are used in formulas, functions, charts, and other Excel commands.

Updating Formulas and Charts

One advantage to using cell references in spreadsheet formulas is that, normally, if the data
located in the referenced cells changes, the formula or chart automatically updates to reflect the
change.

Range of Cells A2:A4

While references often refer to individual cells - such as A1, they can also refer to a group or
range of cells.

Ranges are identified by the cell references of the cells in the upper left and lower right corners
of the range.

The two cell references used for a range are separated by a colon ( : ) which tells Excel or
Google Spreadsheets to include all the cells between these start and end points.

An example of a range of adjacent cells is shown in row 3 of the image above where the SUM
function is used to total the numbers in the range A2:A4.

Relative, Absolute, and Mixed Cell References

There are three types of references that can be used in Excel and Google spreadsheets and they
are easily identified by the presence or absence of dollar signs ($) within the cell reference:

 relative cell references contain no dollar signs - = A2 + A4;


 absolute cell references have dollar signs attached to each letter or number in a reference
-: =$A$2+$A$4;
 mixed cell references have dollar signs attached to either the letter or the number in a
reference but not both -: =$A2+A$4.
Copying Formulas and the Different Cell References

A second advantage to using cell references in formulas is that they make it easier to copy
formulas from one location to another in a worksheet or workbook.

Relative cell references change when copied to reflect the new location of the formula. For
example, if the formula

= A2 + A4

was copied from cell B2 to B3, the references would change so that the formula would be:

= A3 + A5

Their name relative comes from the fact that they change relative to their location when copied.
This is usually a good thing and it is why relative cell references are the default type of reference
used in formulas.

At times, though cell references need to stay static when formulas are copied. To do this, an
absolute reference ( =$A$2+$A$4) is used which does not change when copied.

Still, at other times, you may want part of a cell reference to change - such as the column letter -
while having the row number stay static - or vice versa when a formula is copied.

This is when a mixed cell reference is used (=$A2+A$4). Whichever part of the reference has a
dollar sign attached to it stays static, while the other part changes when copied.

So for $A2, when it is copied, the column letter will always be A, but the row numbers will
change to $A3, $A4, $A5, and so on.

The decision to use the different cell references when creating the formula is based on the
location of the data that will be used by the copied formulas.

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