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:

By default, a cell reference is a relative reference, which means that the reference is relative to the location of the cell. If, for example, you refer to cell A2 from cell C2, you are actually referring to a cell that is two columns to the left (C minus A)—in the same row (2).

When you create a simple formula or a formula by that uses a function, you can refer to data in worksheet cells by including cell references in the formula arguments. For example, when you enter or select the cell reference A2 , the formula uses the value of that cell to calculate the result.

The CELL function returns information about the formatting, location, or contents of a cell. For example, if you want to verify that a cell contains a numeric value instead of text before you perform a calculation on it, you can use the following formula: =IF(CELL("type",A1)="v",A1*2,0)

Excel comes with multiple Lookup and Reference functions that let you find matching values. Use this article to decide which function is best for your needs.

Structured references make it easier to use formulas with Excel tables by replacing cell references, such as C2:C7, with predefined names for the items in a table.

A 3-D reference is useful and convenient way to reference several worksheets that follow the same pattern and cells on each worksheet contain the same type of data, such as when you consolidate budget data from different departments in your organization.

Returns the reference specified by a text string. References are immediately evaluated to display their contents. Use INDIRECT when you want to change the reference to a cell within a formula without changing the formula itself. Syntax. INDIRECT(ref_text, [a1]) The INDIRECT function syntax has the following arguments: Ref_text Required. A ...

The CELL function uses the return value of INDEX as a cell reference. On the other hand, a formula such as 2*INDEX(A1:B2,1,2) translates the return value of INDEX into the number in cell B1. Examples. Copy the example data in the following table, and …

By default, a cell reference is relative. For example, when you refer to cell A2 from cell C2, you are actually referring to a cell that is two columns to the left (C minus A), and in the same row (2). A formula that contains a relative cell reference changes as you copy it from one cell to another.