Microsoft Excel is built on a regime of Columns and Rows with the intersection of these two elements giving us our cells. The cells in Microsoft Excel are always named
Lets investigate the difference between the two …
A Relative Reference is one that when copied from one position to another will adjust the formula cell address to suit the position it is in. For example if you have a formula in cell address C4 that was =B4*C1 and then copied the formula into say C5 what you will notice is that the cell addresses of the formula will change to =B5 * C2. The reason this has occurred is that the cell addresses are in fact relative addresses. That is the cell address is relative to its current position.
To change a cell address from being relative to being absolute we simply add dollars signs to the cell address in this way – $C$5. What this address is now saying to us is that we must absolutely refer to
There are many reasons why you may use Relative References over Absolute references and vice versa. One of the most common one for using absolute references is when you have a specific value you want to refer to in a formula. For example, lets say you are building a mortgage calculator and you need to refer to an Interest Rate. To ensure you are always referring to the right cell that has the interest rate value you may set an absolute value.
In Microsoft Excel there is also a reference called a mixed reference. Essentially what this means is that only either the
There are a number of ways that you can enter Relative and Absolute values into a formula. One technique is that you can simply type the $ symbols next to the Row or the
Absolute and relative references are extremely important in Microsoft Excel and they ensure that the formulas you are creating actually refer to the correct cells. Remember one simple rule, if the cell addresses have a $ symbol next to it, it means you must absolutely refer to either the