The dollar sign in Excel

The dollar sign ($) in Excel is used to create a locked cell reference. In some cases, locking cells is important, otherwise, you would spend a lot of time rewriting formulas.

There are three ways you can use the dollar sign to lock a cell reference.

  1. Locked column (called mixed cell reference).
  2. Locked row (also called mixed cell reference).
  3. Locked column & row (absolute cell reference).

How to use a dollar sign in a formula

In order to change the type of cell reference, you have to follow these steps.

  1. Create a formula with cell references.
  2. Select the cell with the formula and click inside the formula bar.
  3. Keep pressing the F4 key between different cell references.

You can read more about this subject in my lesson about relative, mixed and absolute types of cell.