Skip to content
Free Excel Tutorials
  • Home
  • Excel For Beginners
  • Excel Intermediate
  • Advanced Excel For Experts

Data Analysis

  • Remove Duplicates Example in Excel
  • What-If Analysis: Scenarios and Goal Seek in Excel
  • How To Load Analysis ToolPak in Excel
  • Conflicting Multiple Conditional Formatting Rules in Excel
  • Add Outline to Data in Excel

References

  • How to use Excel ROWS Function
  • Two-way lookup with VLOOKUP in Excel
  • Basic INDEX MATCH approximate in Excel
  • VLOOKUP function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • MATCH function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation

Data Validations

  • Excel Data validation specific characters only
  • Excel Data validation allow uppercase only
  • Excel Data validation exists in list
  • Excel Data validation no punctuation
  • Data validation must not exist in list

Cell References: Relative, Absolute and Mixed Referencing Examples

by

Cell references in Excel are very important.

Building a structure or a template in excel using formula one needs to understand the difference between relative, absolute and mixed reference.

Relative Reference

To identify relative referencing, it is simply the ‘cell name’  as illustrated below.

N/B: Cell Name comprises of a column label and a row number of a selected cell.

By default, Excel uses relative references. See the formula in cell D2 below. Cell D2 references (points to) cell B2 and cell C2. Both references are relative.

1. Select cell D2, click on the lower right corner of cell D2 and drag it down to cell D5.

Cell D3 references cell B3 and cell C3. Cell D4 references cell B4 and cell C4. Cell D5 references cell B5 and cell C5. In other words: each cell references its two neighbors on the left.

Worked Example:   How to calculate Quarter of Date in Excel

Absolute Reference

To identify absolute referencing, there is a dollar sign in front of the column label and a dollar sign in front of the row number, e.g $A$1.

See the formula in cell E3 below.

1. To create an absolute reference to cell H3, place a $ symbol in front of the column letter and row number ($H$3) in the formula of cell E3.

2. Now we can quickly drag this formula to the other cells.

The reference to cell H3 is fixed (when we drag the formula down and across). As a result, the correct lengths and widths in inches are calculated.

Worked Example:   How to create dynamic named range with INDEX in Excel

Mixed Reference

Sometimes we need a combination of relative and absolute reference (mixed reference).

To identify Mixed Reference, there is a dollar sign either in front of the column label or in front of the row number, e.g $A1 or  A$1

1. See the formula in cell F2 below.

2. We want to copy this formula to the other cells quickly. Drag cell F2 across one cell, and look at the formula in cell G2.

Do you see what happens? The reference to the price should be a fixed reference to column B. Solution: place a $ symbol in front of the column letter ($B2) in the formula of cell F2. In a similar way, when we drag cell F2 down, the reference to the reduction should be a fixed reference to row 6. Solution: place a $ symbol in front of the row number (B$6) in the formula of cell F2.

Worked Example:   Fibonacci Sequence in Excel

Result:

Note: we don’t place a $ symbol in front of the row number of $B2 (this way we allow the reference to change from $B2 (Jeans) to $B3 (Shirts) when we drag the formula down). In a similar way, we don’t place a $ symbol in front of the column letter of B$6 (this way we allow the reference to change from B$6 (Jan) to C$6 (Feb) and D$6 (Mar) when we drag the formula across).

3. Now we can quickly drag this formula to the other cells.

The references to column B and row 6 are fixed

Post navigation

Previous Post:

SUMX2PY2 function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation

Next Post:

Everything about Charts in Excel

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Learn Basic Excel

Ribbon
Workbook
Worksheets
Format Cells
Find & Select
Sort & Filter
Templates
Print
Share
Protect
Keyboard Shortcuts

Categories

  • Charts
  • Data Analysis
  • Data Validation
  • Excel Functions
    • Cube Functions
    • Database Functions
    • Date and Time Functions
    • Engineering Functions
    • Financial Functions
    • Information Functions
    • Logical Functions
    • Lookup and Reference Functions
    • Math and Trig Functions
    • Statistical Functions
    • Text Functions
    • Web Functions
  • Excel VBA
  • Excel Video Tutorials
  • Formatting
  • Grouping
  • Others

Logical Functions

  • How to use IFS function in Excel
  • OR function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • IF with boolean logic in Excel
  • How to use Excel NOT Function
  • Not Equal To ‘<>‘ operator in Excel

Date Time

  • Calculate total hours that fall between two times in Excel
  • Convert Excel time to decimal seconds
  • Next biweekly payday from date in Excel
  • Convert decimal minutes to Excel time
  • NOW function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation

Grouping

  • Group arbitrary text values in Excel
  • Group numbers at uneven intervals in Excel
  • How to randomly assign data to groups in Excel
  • Running count group by n size in Excel
  • Group times into 3 hour buckets in Excel

General

  • Subtotal invoices by age in Excel
  • Count cells that do not contain many strings in Excel
  • Lock Cells in a Worksheet Excel
  • Flash Fill in Excel
  • How to create dynamic worksheet reference in Excel
© 2023 xlsoffice . All Right Reserved. | Teal Smiles | Abbreviations And Their Meaning