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Piuff's avatar
Piuff
Copper Contributor
Jan 28, 2026

Excel formel

I am going to, have the same date pasted in about 50 places for labels. Request: I did Create a cell, AL2 - wrote, 27 Oct Then I want to create a formula in the 20 different places, that picks up...
excel
Formulas and Functions
Olufemi7's avatar
Olufemi7
Iron Contributor
Jan 31, 2026

HelloPiuff​, 

To pull the same date from cell AL2 into multiple places on the same worksheet, use a normal cell reference.

Use:
=AL2
or, to keep the reference fixed when copying to many cells (best for labels):
=$AL$2

Do not use ! unless you are referencing a different worksheet (for example: Sheet1!AL2). Using =!AL2 is not valid Excel syntax.

If the value in AL2 is meant to be a date, ensure it is entered as a real date and then format the cells as a Date (for example, Custom format d mmm). Any change in AL2 will automatically update all linked cells.

Microsoft documentation:
Use cell references in a formula
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-cell-references-in-a-formula-fe137a0d-1c39-4d6e-a9e0-e5ca61fcba03

Switch between relative and absolute references
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/switch-between-relative-absolute-and-mixed-references-981f5871-7864-42cc-b3f0-41ffa10cc6fc

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