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101 Excel 2013 Tips, Tricks and Timesavers
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Tip 29: Knowing When to Use Absolute and Mixed References
When you create a formula that refers to another cell or range, the cell references are usually relative references. When you copy a formula that uses relative references, the cell references adjust to their new location in a relative manner. Assume this formula (which uses relative references) is in cell A13:
=SUM(A1:A12)
If you copy the formula to cell B13, the copied formula is
=SUM(B1:B12)
Most of the time, you want cell references to adjust when you copy formulas. That’s why most of the time you use relative references in formulas. But some situations require either absolute or relative references.
Using absolute references
You specify an absolute reference by using two dollar signs (one in front of the column part and one in front of the row part). Here are two examples of formulas that use absolute references:
=$A$1
=SUM($A$1:$F$24)
An absolute cell reference...
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