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When writing an Excel formula, $ in cell references confuses many users. But the explanation is very simple.
The dollar sign in an Excel cell reference serves just one purpose - it tells Excel whether to change or not to
change the reference when the formula is copied to other cells. And this short tutorial provides full details about
this great feature.
The importance of Excel cell reference can hardly be overstated. Get the insight into the difference between
absolute, relative and mixed references, and you are halfway to mastering the power and versatility of Excel
formulas and functions.
All of you have probably seen the dollar sign ($) in Excel formulas and wondered what's that all about. Indeed,
you can reference one and the same cell in four different ways, for example A1, $A$1, $A1, and A$1.
The dollar sign in an Excel cell reference affects just one thing - it instructs Excel how to treat the reference when
the formula is moved or copied to other cells. In a nutshell, using the $ sign before the row and column
coordinates makes an absolute cell reference that won't change. Without the $ sign, the reference is relative and
it will change.
If you are writing a formula for a single cell, you can go with any reference type and get the formula right anyway.
But if you intend to copy your formula to other cells, choosing the appropriate cell reference type is crucial. If
you feel lucky, you can toss a coin :) If you want to be serious, then invest a few minutes in learning the ins-and-
outs of absolute and relative cell references in Excel, and when to use which one.
For example, if you enter a simple formula =A1 in cell C1, Excel will pull a value from cell A1 into C1:
But if you want to move or copy the formula across the worksheet, it's very important that you choose the right
reference type for the formula to get copied correctly to other cells. The following sections provide the detailed
explanation and formula examples for each cell reference type.
Note. Apart from the A1 reference style, where columns are defined by letters and rows by numbers, there also
exist the R1C1 reference style where both rows and columns are identified by numbers (R1C1 designates row
1, column 1).
Because A1 is the default reference style in Excel and it is used most of the time, we will discuss only the A1 type
references in this tutorial. If someone is currently using the R1C1 style, you can turn it off by clicking File >
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Options > Formulas, and then unchecking the R1C1 reference style box.
When a formula with relative cell references in copied to another cell, the reference changes based on a relative
position of rows and columns. By default, all references in Excel are relative. The following example shows how
relative references work.
=A1*10
If you copy this formula to another row in the same column, say to cell B2, the formula will adjust for row 2
(A2*10) because Excel assumes you want to multiply a value in each row of column A by 10.
If you copy the formula with a relative cell reference to another column in the same row, Excel will change the
column reference accordingly:
And if you copy or move an Excel formula with a relative cell reference to another row and another column,
both column and row references will change:
As you see, using relative cell references in Excel formulas is a very convenient way to perform the same
calculations across the entire worksheet. To better illustrate this, let's discuss a real-life example.
Supposing you have a column of USD prices (column B) in your worksheet, and you want to convert them to
EUR. Knowing the USD - EUR conversion rate (0.93 at the moment of writing), the formula for row 2, is as simple
as =B2*0.93. Notice, that we are using an Excel relative cell reference, without the dollar sign.
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Pressing the Enter key will get the formula calculated, and the result will immediately appear in the cell.
That's it! The formula is copied to other cells with relative references that are adjusted properly for each
individual cell. To make sure that a value in each cell is calculated correctly, select any of the cells and view the
formula in the formula bar. In this example, I've selected cell C4, and see that the cell reference in the formula is
relative to row 4, exactly as it should be:
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Note. Though we have been saying that an absolute reference in Excel never changes, in fact it does change
when you add or remove rows and/or columns in your worksheet, and this changes the location of the referenced
cell. In the above example, if we insert a new row at the top of the worksheet, Excel is smart enough to adjust the
formula to reflect that change:
In real worksheets, it's a very rare case when you'd use only absolute references in your Excel formula.
However, there are a lot of tasks that require using both absolute and relative references, as demonstrated in the
following examples.
In our previous example with USD and EUR prices, you may not want to hardcode the exchange rate in the
formula. Instead, you can enter that number in some cell, say C1, and fix that cell reference in the formula by
using the dollar sign ($) like shown in the following screenshot:
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In this formula (B4*$C$1), there are two cell reference types:
Another common use of absolute and relative cell references in a single formula is Calculating dates in Excel
based on today's date.
Supposing you have a list of delivery dates in column B, and you input the current date in C1 by using the
TODAY() function. What you want to know is in how many days each item ships, and you can calculate this out
by using the following formula: =B4-$C$1
Relative for the cell with the first delivery date (B4),
because you want this cell reference to vary
depending on the row where the formula resides.
Absolute for the cell with today's date ($C$1),
because you want this cell reference to remain
constant.
As you remember, an Excel absolute reference contains 2 dollar signs ($) that lock both the column and the row.
In a mixed cell reference, only one coordinate is fixed (absolute) and the other (relative) will change based on a
relative position of the row or column:
Absolute column and relative row, like $A1. When a formula with this reference type is copied to other
cells, the $ sign in front of the column letter locks the reference to the specified column so that it never
changes. The relative row reference, without the dollar sign, varies depending on the row to which the
formula is copied.
Relative column and absolute row , like A$1. In this reference type, it's the row's reference that won't
change, and the column's reference will.
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Below you will find an example of using both mixed
cell reference types that will hopefully make things
easier to understand.
To begin with, let's enter the conversion rates in some row, say row 2, as shown in the screenshot below. And
then, you write just one formula for the top-left cell (C5 in this example) to calculate the EUR price:
=$B5*C$2
Where $B5 is the dollar price in the same row, and C$2 is the USD - EUR conversion rate.
And now, copy the formula down to other cells in column C, and after that auto-fill other columns with the same
formula by dragging the fill handle. As the result, you will have 3 different price columns calculated correctly
based on the corresponding exchange rate in row 2 in the same column. To verify this, select any cell in the table
and view the formula in the formula bar.
For example, let's select cell D7 (in the GBP column). What we see here is the formula =$B7*D$2 that takes a
USD price in B7 and multiplies it by the value in D2, which is the USD-GBP conversion rate, just what the doctor
ordered :)
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And now, let's understand how it comes that Excel exactly knows which price to take and which exchange rate to
multiply it by. As you may have guessed, it's the mixed cell references that do the trick ($B5*C$2).
$B5 - absolute column and relative row . Here you add the dollar sign ($) only before the column letter
to anchor the reference to column A, so Excel always uses the original USD prices for all conversions.
The row reference (without the $ sign) is not locked because you want to calculate the prices for each row
individually.
C$2 - relative column and absolute row . Because all the exchange rates reside in row 2, you lock the
row reference by putting the dollar sign ($) in front of the row number. And now, no matter what row you
copy the formula to, Excel will always look for the exchange rate in row 2. And because the column
reference is relative (without $ sign), it will get adjusted for the column to which the formula is copied.
A whole-column reference
As well as cell references, an entire column reference can be absolute and relative, for example:
And again, you use the dollar sign ($) in an absolute column reference to lock it to a certain column, for the
entire-column reference not to change when you copy a formula to other cells.
A relative column reference will change when the formula is copied or moved to other columns and will remain
intact when you copy the formula to other cells within the same column.
A whole-row reference
To refer to the entire row, you use the same approach except that you type row numbers instead of column
letters:
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Relative row reference, like 1:1
In theory, you can also create a mixed entire-column reference or mixed entire-row reference, like $A:A or
$1:1, respectively. I say "in theory", because I cannot think of any practical application of such references,
though Example 4 proves that formulas with such references work exactly as they are supposed to.
Supposing you have some numbers in column B and you want to find out their total and average. The problem is
that new rows are added to the table every week, so writing a usual SUM() or AVERAGE() formula for a fixed
range of cells is not the way to go. Instead, you can reference the entire column B:
=SUM($B:$B) - use the dollar sign ($) to make an absolute whole-column reference that locks the formula to
column B.
=SUM(B:B) - write the formula with no $ to make a relative whole-column reference that will get changed as
you copy the formula to other columns.
Tip. When writing the formula, click the column letter to have the entire-column reference added to the formula.
As is the case with cell references, Excel inserts a relative reference (with no $ sign) by default:
In the same fashion, we write a formula to calculate the average price in the whole column B:
=AVERAGE(B:B)
In this example, we are using a relative entire-column reference, so our formula gets adjusted properly when we
copy it to other columns:
Note. When using an entire-column reference in your Excel formulas, never input the formula anywhere within
the same column. For example, it might seem like a good idea to enter the formula =SUM(B:B) in one of the
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empty bottom-most cells in column B to have the total at the end of the same column. Don't do this! This would
create a so-called circular reference and the formula would return 0.
If the data in your Excel sheet is organized in rows rather than columns, then you can reference an entire row in
your formula. For example, this is how we can calculate an average price in row 2:
=AVERAGE($2:$2) - an absolute whole-row reference is locked to a specific row by using the dollar sign ($).
=AVERAGE(2:2) - a relative whole-row reference will change when the formula is copied to other rows.
In this example, we need a relative entire-row reference because we have 3 rows of data and we want to
calculate an average in each row by copying the same formula:
Example 3. How to refer to an entire column excluding the first few rows
This is a very topical problem, because quite often the first few row in a worksheet contain some introductory
clause or explanatory information and you don't want to include them in your calculations. Regrettably, Excel
does not allow references like B5:B that would include all the rows in column B beginning with row 5. If you try
adding such a reference, your formula will most likely return the #NAME error.
Instead, you can specify a maximum row, so that your reference includes all possible rows in a given column.
In Excel 2016, 2013, 2010, and 2007, a maximum is 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns. Earlier Excel versions
have a row maximum of 65,536 and column maximum of 256.
So, to find an average for each price column in the below table (columns B through D), you enter the following
formula in cell F2, and then copy it to cells G2 and H2:
=AVERAGE(B5:B1048576)
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If you are using the SUM function, you can also subtract the rows you want to exclude:
=SUM(B:B)-SUM(B1:B4)
As I mentioned a few paragraphs before, you can also make a mixed entire-column or entire-row reference in
Excel:
Now, let's see what happens when you copy a formula with such references to other cells. Supposing you input
the formula =SUM($B:B) in some cell, F2 in this example. When you copy the formula to the adjacent right-hand
cell (G2), it changes to =SUM($B:C) because the first B is fixed with the $ sign, while the second isn't. As the
result, the formula will add up all the numbers in columns B and C. Not sure if this has any practical value, but
you may want to know how it works:
A word of caution! Don't use too many entire column/row references in a worksheet because they may slow
down your Excel.
How to switch between absolute, relative, and mixed references (F4 key)
When you write an Excel formula, $ sign can of course be typed manually to change a relative cell reference to
absolute or mixed. Or, you can hit the F4 key to speed things up. For the F4 shortcut to work, you have to be in
formula edit mode:
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1. Select the cell with the formula.
2. Enter Edit mode by pressing the F2 key, or just click inside the formula bar, and select the cell reference
you want to change.
3. Press F4 to toggle between four cell reference types.
If you've selected a relative cell reference with no $ sign, like A1, repeatedly hitting the F4 button toggles
between an absolute reference with both dollar signs like $A$1, absolute row A$1, absolute column $A1, and
then back to the relative reference A1.
I hope now you fully understand what relative and absolute cell
references are, and an Excel formula with $ signs is no longer a
mystery. In the next few articles, we will continue learning various aspects of Excel cell references such as
referencing another worksheet, 3d reference, structured reference, circular reference, and so on. In the
meantime, I thank you for reading and hope to see you on our blog next week!
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