This series of articles will give you an overview of how to manage spreadsheet risk. These articles are written by Myles Arnott from Excel Audit
- Part 1: An Introduction to managing spreadsheet risk
- Part 2: How companies can manage their spreadsheet risk
- Part 3: Excel’s auditing functions
- Part 4: Using external software packages to manage your spreadsheet risk
In the first two articles in this series we highlighted the risks that poorly managed spreadsheet solutions can introduce to a business and outlined the steps companies can take to manage this risk. This article works through the application of some of Excel’s built in auditing functions:
- Error checking (Background and stepping through each error)
- Trace Error
- Circular Reference
- Go To Special
Let’s have a look at an example spreadsheet that is riddled with issues.
The spreadsheet contains four tabs: a simple front page; an Example tab with the report that we wish to audit; a Resolved tab with the corrected report; and a Notes tab which details all of the issues contained within the spreadsheet (if you print the Resolved tab, all of the comments will also be printed for your reference).
If you are up for a challenge you could download the file and work through the report in the Example tab to see how many of the errors you can find yourself.
First off let’s identify the obvious issues
Circular reference
On opening the file you are presented with this warning message:
Click OK to continue opening the file. Here is how the report looks:
Excel helpfully gives you the location of the first circular reference (Q30) in the bottom left corner of the screen:
An alternative approach to locating circular references is to select Error Checking > Circular References on the Formulas tab of the Ribbon:
By clicking into the formula on cell Q30 you will see that the formula is =AVERAGE(M30:N30,P30:Q30). This average formula is including the cell Q30, hence the circular reference.
[Related: Understanding & Using Excel Circular References]
#REF error
The next obvious issue is that cells I13, J13, J33, S13, S18 & S33 contain the #REF error. The #REF error is a warning that the formula contains an invalid cell reference (this usually happens when the user deletes a cell/row/column/worksheet that is being referenced by a formula).
To trace the cell originating this error select any cell containing the error (I chose S33 as this would appear to be the main report total), and select Error Checking > Trace Error on the Formulas tab of the Ribbon:
This highlights that cell I13 is the source of the error:
Cell I13 contains the formula =3109+#REF!. To remove the error simply remove the +#REF! within the formula.
It is also however important to try to understand what cell was referenced by the formula originally. The best way to do this would be to talk to the user/previous user (if they are still there) and look back through archived versions of the report (if they exist).
Now that the obvious issues have been identified we are now going to employ some of Excel’s other auditing tools to see if there are any hidden errors.
[Related: Understanding & fixing Excel Formula Errors]
Excel’s error checking function
I’m sure that you will have noticed the small green triangles in the top left hand corner of some of the cells. This is Excel’s background error checking function warning you that these cells break one of the predetermined rules.
Firstly let’s have a look at the errors that are being checked for. To open the Error Checking options select File > Options> Formulas (2010) or Office button> Excel options>Formulas (2007).
Below is the default set up:
When reviewing a spreadsheet for errors it is always worth a quick check to ensure that the above is set up as you would like it to be. I always also tick the “Formulas referring to empty cells” rule.
Click OK to return to the spreadsheet.
The most systematic way to walk through all of the issues identified by the error checking function is to run Error Checking on the Formulas tab of the Ribbon:
This launches the Error checking dialogue box and allows you to review each error in turn:
I will leave you to run through the errors one by one to see what Excel picks up.
Please note that this is not a fool proof check as it is simply checking against the predefined rules. This function will not highlight cells that comply with the rules but contain other errors. It can also highlight cells as an error when they are not (eg P13, in this case click on “Ignore Error”). A very useful starting point nonetheless.
Reviewing the report structure
A crucial step to ensuring that a spreadsheet is error free is to understand its structure, and then to ensure that this structure is correct and consistent.
The simplest way to do this is to identify the different types of cells and their relative positions within the worksheet. For this simple example we are looking to identify:
- Input cells (Numbers)
- Input cells (Text)
- Formula cells
- Formula cells returning an error
To achieve this quickly and simply I have built a basic macro which is within the spreadsheet and can be run from the “RUN” button in the Example tab.
This colors each cell type as follows:
This very quickly identifies some structural issues in the spreadsheet:
So how does this work?
The macro above uses Excel’s Go To Special function which helps you to quickly select cells of different types.
To launch Go To Special, click on Find and Select> Go To Special on the Home tab of the Ribbon:
(Alternatively press F5 or Ctrl + G to launch the Go To dialogue box and then click on Special…)
For example, selecting Constants and leaving just Numbers ticked will highlight all numbers on the current worksheet:
It is worth playing with the options on Go To Special as there are some great functions that I sadly don’t have time to cover here (the precedents, Dependents and Row/Column differences functions are particularly useful).
[Related: More uses of Go To Special in Excel]
And Finally…
As valuable as these initial tests are there are still some issues in the spreadsheet that only a detailed investigation will highlight.
So I’ll leave you to grab a coffee and see if you can find them (they are covered in the Notes and in the Resolved tab).
In the final article of the series we will have a quick look at an example of spreadsheet auditing software.
Also, we are planning to write an article explaining other useful features of Go To Special dialog.
What about you?
Do you use Spreadsheet auditing functions? What is your experience with them? What are your favorite features? Please share using comments.
Thank you Myles
Many thanks to Myles for writing this series. Your experience in this area is invaluable. If you enjoy this series, drop a note of thanks to Myles thru comments. You can also reach him at Excel Audit or his linkedin profile.
37 Responses to “Quickly Change Formulas Using Find / Replace”
Chandoo,
this is a really cool stuff what I use quite often. In addtion this method also could be a good choice to switch the reference type of the formulas from relative to absolute or vice versa. (just simply replace the $ in the same way).
Andras
@Andras: you are right, we can use find / replace to change references, reference types etc. Now, only if they had regex in find/ replace, we could so much more 🙂
@Tony Rose: Thank you. This is very useful and powerful feature. I even use it for cleaning up data. While formulas are good, they are not the solution for every problem. Often when I need more powerful cleanup / changing, I copy paste the stuff to text editors like notepad++ and then use their find/replace to do the dirty task.
What if i have to change the formula from ='Analysis'!C1 to 'Analysis 1'!C1?
I tried doing it using Find /Replace but could't. Encountered some errors.
And is there a way to change this using VBA???
Hi,
Did you ever get a reply to this?
Thanks
Ollie
to make your life easier, suggest you to avoid (Space) in worksheet names whenever possible. Consider (underscore) instead.
As the first formula wouldn't have the single apostrophes (since there's no space) need to include that in replace. So, search for:
Analysis
and replace with:
'Analysis 1'
This could be the most useful tips I've seen in a while. I use this all the time and can instantly change 400 formulas with a few clicks. Like so many other functions in Excel, I don't know what I would do without this one.
Keep 'em coming!
[...] on formulas: 5 areas where mouse kicks keyboard’s butt | Edit formulas in bulk using Find / Replace | Excel Formulas Online [...]
THANKS BRO
You, sir, are a god among men...
This is really cool. Your just save me hours of work. Thanks.
Thanks so much for this fix! It saved me tons of work. I'm muddling my way through and this really helped!
Oh... My... God!
This tip just saved me about 2 hours every month! I can't believe how easy it is to use. Now, can somebody tell me who I should call to get a refund for the previous 100 hours I spent manually changing formulas cell by cell?
Thanks so much!
THANK YOU!!!
THANK YOU!!!!
You saved me hours, I had a sheet that has more than 500 formulas, and i needed to replace the year in all of them, you saved me hours
Awesome info on replacing cell addresses in formulas. I have never heard about Ctrl+` before. Thank you!
I have something inside a formula like:
=sum(A1, A2*10) all over I now need to get rid of the *10 {=sume(A1, A2)} I thought to use the find replace trick above but with a blank in the replace but it then outputs just zeros. I thought I could trick it by doing *1 but then it just turns into =*1) with none of my references. Does anyone have an idea how to do this?
The Ctrl+ trick is cool.
@T
Instead of replacing with a blank try replacing
*10)
with
)
Thank you! This literally will save me hours and hours of time, and that's without losing my sanity in the process!
I have Sheet(1), Sheet(2), Sheet(3), etc ... Sheet(100).
Then there's a summary tab where I want to recap information on all those different sheets. Is there anyway to create a formula on the Summary tab to get ='Sheet(1)'!B$29 copied down for all 100 sheets without having to change each sheet # within the formula by hand?
@Brigitte
If you have a list of the sheet names in A2:A100
In B2: =INDIRECT("'"&A2&"'!$B$29")
Copy down
or if you don't have a list of the sheets names you can make it up on the fly
=INDIRECT("'sheet("&ROW()-1&")'!$B$29")
Copy down
Thanks for the suggestion. However, I copied your formula right back to my file and it didn't work. So I did it another way. I put the tab/cell reference in one cell and then did an =INDIRECT() to capture that information.
K2="'Sheet("&L2&")'!B$29" which has a value of 'Sheet(1)'!B$29
B2=INDIRECT(K2) which now has a value of 40 (contents on Sheet(1).
Thank you!!!!
Thank you ..
Hi, Out of all the formulae, I wish to replace the formula which has generated 0 value with blank space? I am unable to do it with find and replace function,
Please suggest.
Thanks.
Chandoo, you literally just saved me about 2 hours of work. I had a document with a daily report in two formats. The second formate just linked to all the appropriate cells in the other format (different sheets). This was 180 references that needed to be changed and I had to make this for a 4 week period (aka 28 different sheets at 180 references to change per sheet).
Thanks so much.
I have tried this way and without using the Ctrl-` formula view
Either way, I am trying to do something simple, but it won't let me.
I have a bunch of cells with a simple math formula like
=-(0.5*20)
various values in each cell, multiplied by 20
I simply want to change the multiplier globally from 20 to 25. But when I tell it to find *20 and replace it with *25, it replaces the entire cell contents with *25, rather than just replacing the *20 portion of the cell contents.
Can anyone assist with this? Seems so simple, but Excel isn't letting me do it.
Search/Replace 20 or 20) with a cell Reference eg A1 or A1)
Then put the value 25 in A1
By using a * in the search it replaces all the text
how to find a specific cell's value in a column & replace replace it with another cell value i actually need a method to replace a data in ca column and replace with the value i have in a specific cell can i give a [ location ] of data to what i need to find and then give row or column range to where i need to find and the given value & then give a [ location ] of data to what i want to be replace with the find and replace by row & column range & than by specific criteria and than by specific location.
please help.
how to find a specific cell’s value in a column & replace replace it with another cell's value.
i actually need a method to find a specific cell's data in a column and replace it with the value i have in a specific cell.
can i give a [ location ] of data to what i need to find and then give row or column range from where i need to find the given value & then give a [ location ] of data to what i want to be replace with.
find and replace by row & column range & than by specific criteria and than by specific location.
please help.
how to find a specific cell’s value in a column & replace it with another cell’s value.
i actually need a method to find a specific cell’s data in a column and replace it with the value i have in a specific cell.
can i give a [ location ] of data to what i need to find and then give row or column range from where i need to find the given value & then give a [ location ] of data to what i want to be replace with.
"find and replace by row & column range & than by specific criteria and than by specific location."
in more than 100 sheets in entire workbook
please help.
This is a great tool, does anyone knows an easiest way??
I'm working with a system that has over 59000 references... so every time the replace all is activated. I lose an entire day.
i actually needs to find cell number "D12" in column "D" and replace with Cell Number "B8" for example
find what = Cell Number "D12" John McNamara
find Where = in Column "D"
Replace with = Cell Number "B8" Bieber D'Souza
Replace Range = Column "D"
In which Sheet = All Sheets in Work Book (more than 100 Sheets)
Note: in every Sheet Cells Number "D12" & "B8" containing Different Employ Name but the find rang and replace rang are same in every sheet and find what cell number and replace with cell number are same also.
please help!
thank you. saved lot of time.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Hi, I am trying to figure out how to use RE to find and replace several values in a column. Using find and replace does not work because of the values I am working with. I have a column with hundreds of rows that have a description of several operating systems and other info, which looks like this: Windows Server 2008 R2 Member Server Security Technical Implementation Guide; Windows 2008 Member Server Security Technical Implementation Guide; Solaris 10 10 SPARC SECURITY TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE; and Windows Windows 2003 Member Server Security Technical Implementation Guide.
I need to be able to find and replace (or basically curtail the descriptions) to be Windows 2008 R2; Windows 2008; Windows 2003; and Solaris 10. BUT when I run find and replace with just *2008*, it finds every instance, including the ones with R2 at the end. I need it to only change the ones with 2008 to Windows 2008 and the ones that have 2008 R2 to Windows 2008 R2. I know it is possible, but I have no clue on how to write a macro to do this.
Thanks for your help,
Gerard
Wickedly efficient workaround. Excel really is a powerhouse program, all you have to do is dig into it. Ctl ~ exposes the formulas, and Ctl H allows for the multi edit. Brilliant, Chandoo!