Absolute and Relative Cell References in Excel

[Alina Ponomarenko]

Hello,

Can someone please explain me the difference between absolute and relative cell references in excel formulas? Also, could you please provide examples of both? It seems to be a great feature which I can’t find a lot of information about. Thank you!

 

[AliGW]

It's very simple:

=A1

will change to A2 etc. as you drag copy down and B1 etc. as you drag copy across.

=$A1

will change to A2 etc. as you drag copy down and remain as A1 as you drag copy across.

=A$1

will remain as A1 as you drag copy down and change to B1 etc. as you drag copy across.

=$A$1

will remain as A1 as you drag copy down and A1 as you drag copy across.

If you are using a function such as VLOOKUP, you will want to use the latter for your lookup range so that the range stays fixed as you drag copy across and down.