Forum Discussion
Changing cell reference in a formula using contents of another cell
Microsoft invented INDIRECT() for this purpose.
But beware. The function is volatile. If INDIRECT() is used any change in the workbook triggers a recalculation of all the cells in the workbook.
Detlef_Lewin I read about indiect() before, and it seems to be a bit different. If I have 27 in cell B2, and 'B2' in cell A1, then indirect(A1) looks in A1, finds 'B2' and gives me the value 27.
I want it to look at a cell which contains text, and embed that text into a cell reference. ie, the text in A1 is a sheet name, and I write xxxxx - A1 xxxx B10 in a cell, and it returns the value in sheet 'A1' cell B10.
INDIRECT() is designed to convert text into a reference. Pleasesee the support page for the function.
=INDIRECT("'"&A1&"'!B10")This concatenates the value in A1 with some additional text to become the following reference.
'Sheet1'!B10
- I’m sure my friend Detlef_Lewin can provide you an example for that. I suggest that the Sheet Name be selected from drop-down list, then use INDIRECT, which is a volatile function. In layman’s terms, volatile in Excel means very slow because it triggers recalculation almost whenever a slight modification of the data is made.
