Monday, June 01, 2009

Chat Support RE: =INDIRECT() Function

More and more I'm helping folks via the MeeboMe chat window I've embedded in the blog. I thought it'd be interesting for you all to see the sorts of conversations I'm having this way:

[14:36] meeboguest######: eric!
[14:36] meeboguest######: do you have a sec?
[14:36] XLgeke: for u?
[14:36] XLgeke: always
[14:36] XLgeke: and now it's over... ;)
[14:36] XLgeke: what's up
[14:36] meeboguest######: excel question
[14:36] meeboguest######: umm
[14:36] meeboguest######: trying to think how to explain
[14:37] XLgeke: reboot
[14:37] XLgeke: that should do it
[14:37] meeboguest######:
[14:37] meeboguest######: ok, I'm wondering if there's a way to dynamically reference a cell in a formula
[14:37] XLgeke: yes
[14:38] meeboguest######: so that if I was to reference cell B
[14:38] XLgeke: right
[14:38] XLgeke: use =INDIRECT()
[14:38] meeboguest######: and that number is a value generated in another cell
[14:38] XLgeke: so like
[14:38] meeboguest######: oooh
[14:38] XLgeke: =INDIRECT("B"&B1")
[14:38] meeboguest######: woah
[14:39] meeboguest######: nice
[14:39] XLgeke: in B1 you'd change the number for BX
[14:39] meeboguest######: right
[14:39] meeboguest######: I'll give that a shot
[14:39] meeboguest######: thanks!
[14:39] XLgeke: np

And that was it...less than 3 minutes and issue solved. This happens scores of times each month.

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