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I am trying to achieve the following scenario.

  1. value of G1 has formula set to (=F1)
  2. When I copy the formula to other cells in column G, I want the formula to saty same (=F1) instead of dynamically getting updated to next cell number in the F column like (=F2) etc.
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migrated from stackoverflow.com Jun 10 '11 at 12:35

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3 Answers 3

up vote 6 down vote accepted

For something like this you can use the $-symbol.


The $-symbol will take the following character as constant. So with the code above it will always refer to F1, no matter where you copy it.

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Why in German? ? –  GrzegorzOledzki Jan 11 '11 at 11:48
I was still tired I guess... as soon as I answered I realized that I wanted to answer in English... I hope it's showing in English now? (I edited it) –  evident Jan 11 '11 at 11:53

(For completeness of the previous answers)

As the previous posters noted, the $ notation makes the reference absolute under cell copy.

Note that you can make the reference row coordinate and the column coordinate fixed independently, like $RC or R$C.

In order to streamline the $-ify reference process while writing the formula, use the F4 function key after selecting that cell.

Cycling through the modes using F4 on, say, A10 reference, will change it to: $A$10 -> A$10 -> $A10 -> A10.

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This isn't really for Stack Overflow but the answer is to use absolute references and so your formula would be =$F$2 and wherever you copy it, it would still refer to that cell.

Another way to do this would be with named cells, but absolute references is probably simpler.

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