
Look closely at the formula in cell C4 in the example below:-īy making the first cell reference $B4, you keep the column from changing when copied across, but allow the row to change when copying down to accommodate the prices of the different items going down. Lets say that there are two types of discount for our widgets Discount Plan 1 and Discount Plan 2 and we want to know the pricing for the different widgets with the two plans. Ok let’s turn up the volume on this and really make it work for us.
.svg/1200px-Microsoft_Office_Excel_(2019–present).svg.png)
See how the B26 reference remains the same even after auto fill. Nice huh? In the example below, the cell reference B26 will always be used for the % sales commission even if you drag the formula using Auto fill. So you do not want the cell to change when you auto fill your formula to the rest of the sales team. We know that the commission is 5% of their sales- ALWAYS. Lets say you are calculating commissions for sales staff of the Widgets as in the above example. If you copy the formula across rows or down columns, the absolute cell reference remains the same unlike the example above. If the position of the cell that contains the formula changes, the absolute cell reference remains the same. That’s all pretty straightforward, and once you get used to absolute cell referencing that will be too, let’s jump in.Īn Absolute cell reference is indicated in your spreadsheet by a $ sign around the cell, for example =$A$1 means that when referring to this cell is is ALWAYS in that location. The cell reference of the above formula =SUM(B4:B7) when dragged across to column C adjusts itself to then sum the results of C4 to C7. For Example if the position of the cell that contains the formula changes, the reference is changed. These are basic cell references that adjust and change when copied or using the Auto fill function in Excel. In our example, we want to reference cell E14 on the Menu Order worksheet.Just what is the difference between an absolute and a relative cell reference in Excel?.Ī relative cell reference is the most widely used cell reference in formulas in Excel.

In our example below, we'll refer to a cell with a calculated value between two worksheets.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/how-to-use-absolute-cell-reference-in-excel-4692257-7-8f8b65755dd8441d9666111a95ada49d.png)
For example, if you wanted to reference cell A1 on a worksheet named July Budget, its cell reference would be 'July Budget'!A1. Note that if a worksheet name contains a space, you'll need to include single quotation marks (' ') around the name. For example, if you wanted to reference cell A1 on Sheet1, its cell reference would be Sheet1!A1. To do this, you'll simply need to begin the cell reference with the worksheet name followed by an exclamation point (!). Using cell references with multiple worksheetsĮxcel allows you to refer to any cell on any worksheet, which can be especially helpful if you want to reference a specific value from one worksheet to another.
