workbook and sheet name via formula

[liverlarson]

I have a standard header I put on almost every excel workbook I create I have been using for years. It includes several standard items, including Workbook name and Worksheet name, which are extracted via CELL("Filename",A1) formula. 

For Excel workbooks that are being viewed in Excel Online, however, whether through onedrive, sharepoint, or whatever, this formula yields a #VALUE! error. When I open in desktop, it renders fine, just not when looking at browser window. 

Is there an alternative that I can use to display current workbook and worksheet names via a formula in a cell that is compatible with Excel Online?

[#2]

@liverlarson 

you need to create a Name like "SheetName" and use GET.CELL(32,A1) in the Refers To area. Whenever you need the sheet name you need to type "=SheetName" in the cell and you will get workbook and sheet name. 

This is a Excel 4 Macro and not being supported. You can use it in Names though.

[#3 · Accepted solution]

@liverlarson 

Afraid for Excel Online that's only with Office Script, there are properties getName both for workbook and worksheet.

VBA and related functions don't work in Excel Online.

[#4]

@liverlarson 

Read out the designation / name of the worksheet

Read out by formula

The focus of the formula solution is the CELL function (infotype; reference). In addition to the file name and the full path, the File Name infotype also returns the name of the worksheet. This is extracted using further functions so that only the sheet name is output at the end.

The result is achieved with these two formulas:
(formulas are from German Translate)
a) = PART (CELL ("filename"; A1); FIND ("]"; CELL ("filename"; A1)) + 1; 255)

or

b) = PART (CELL ("filename"; A1); FIND ("]"; CELL ("filename"; A1)) + 1; LENGTH (CELL ("filename"; A1)) - FIND ("]"; CELL ("filename"; A1)))

2. Read out via VBA

The following VBA function reads out the sheet name via VBA and displays it in a cell. To do this, enter the following code in a code module.

Public Function sheetname () As String
Application.Volatile
sheetname = ActiveSheet.Name
End function

If you now enter the function = sheetname () in a cell, the sheet name is read out and output in the corresponding cell.

I would be happy to know if I could help.

Nikolino

I know I don't know anything (Socrates)

* Kindly Mark and Vote this reply if it helps please, as it will be beneficial to more Community members reading here.

[#5]

@NikolinoDE , VBA doesn't work with Excel Online

[#6]

You are right, I disregarded the labels :(

[#7]

@Sergei Baklan Hmm, wasn't aware of office scripts. From my 30 seconds of research it looks like they are 1) pretty new, 2) basically VBA/macros for online

If I did an office script to accomplish this functionality, does that in any way translate to the workbook when I download it?

Such a simple thing. Seems weird to have to use an online-specific solution. As an aside, do you happen to know why CELL doesn't work online?

[#8]

@liverlarson 

Does Office 365 Excel support VBA?

All versions of Windows desktop Excel from Excel 5 through Excel 2019 support VBA.

This includes the version of Excel installed by Office 365. ...

There is no version of Excel Online, iOS Excel or Android Excel that supports VBA.

Nor does any version of Excel that runs on Windows RT support VBA.

In my humble opinion, it would be good to always have the possibility of VBA in Excel.

All new options such as editing PDF and cloud options, in all future versions, will be require VBA.

Unless someone has already adjusted to Java script ... which I don't hope.

What I don't know is, if you maybe can open from the Developer tab in Visual Basic editor, I don't have Office 365 yet. You can try it, maybe…maybe it will work.

The sequence is in Excel 2016

     Click File

     Click Options

     Click Customize Ribbon

     Under the list of Main Tabs, select Developer

     Click OK

The Developer tab will now appear on the Ribbon and from it you can open the Visual Basic Editor.

 If opening the Developer tab and clicking a button is a little too much work, you can also open the editor with the keyboard shortcut Alt+F11, which works whether the Developer tab is enabled or not.

As I told you before, with the logic of Excel 2016.

Nikolino

I know I don't know anything (Socrates)

[#9]

@liverlarson 

You are right, Office Script is relatively new functionality available only for targeted tenants, that means not for everyone so far. And yes, basically they have the same role as VBA/macro for desktop versions, but that's totally different technology. Since the engines which runs online and desktop versions are different.

Back to question, Excel Online has limited functionality compare to desktop version which, however, is expanded quite fast. To my knowledge there is no built-in function which allows to return file/sheet name. 

[#10]

yeah, VBA is supported in O365 - this question is specific to Excel documents being intereacted with through a web browser (Excel online) though.

The CELL function which works on desktop does not work with online (weirdly), and same is true of VBA.

It's a pretty small detail (CELL formula not working online), not a critical functionality, just annoying to me, because I literally use the same header on every document as a matter of best practice.

[#11]

@liverlarson 

- you may always check if function available for online version or not here Excel functions (alphabetical) In particular,  what it says for CELL

- you may vote for the idea to add CELL() for the online version here CELL function added to online . In theory more votes more chances it'll be added.  

- Perhaps one day functionality of desktop and online versions will be synced, at least that's how I understand Microsoft intention. But with that most probably not VBA will go online but Office Script will go on desktop. That's a long way.

[#12]

@NikolinoDE Before moving to Office 365 I used this function to include the workbook name in the Heading of the Workbook (not in the header) so new versions automatically pick up the right name. It almost works in 365, using =MID(CELL("filename"),SEARCH("[",CELL("filename"))+1, SEARCH("]",CELL("filename"))-SEARCH("[",CELL("filename"))-6) but as soon as I open a 2nd workbook it changes the content of the cell in the 1st workbook to the filename of the newly opened workbook. Very frustrating and confusing!

[#13]

@HughBT 

Excel

ExcelApplication features Excel for the web Excel desktop app

Accessibility Checker	Yes	Yes
Add background color to sheet tabs	Yes	Yes
Add hyperlinks	Yes	Yes
Advanced time filtering (Timeline slicer)	No	Yes
Alignment	Yes	Yes
Apply conditional formatting	Yes	Yes
Apply smart/recommended formatting	No	Yes
Audio notes recording	No	Yes
Autocomplete	Yes	Yes
AutoSum	Yes	Yes
Calculations	Yes	Yes
Cell references in formulas	Yes	Yes
Comment creation	Yes	Yes
Copy and paste	Yes	Yes
Create external data connections2	No3	Yes
Create tables	Yes	Yes
Creation of advanced analysis views (Power View, Power Pivot, Slicers)	No	Yes
Data validation	Yes	Yes
Drag and drop cells	Yes	Yes
Dropbox	Yes	Yes
Duplicate (copy) worksheets	Yes	Yes
Embed workbook on web or blog page (OneDrive)	Yes	No
External references	No4	Yes
Fill handle	Yes	Yes
Find	Yes	Yes
Font and cell formatting	Yes	Yes
Formula bar	Yes	Yes
Formula tools, advanced	No	Yes
Freeze panes	Yes	Yes
Full fidelity reading view	Yes	Yes
Functions	Yes	Yes
GoTo	Yes	Yes
Group data	Yes	Yes
Hide/unhide rows, columns, and sheets	Yes	Yes
Insert charts	Yes	Yes
Insert/delete rows and columns	Yes	Yes
Insert pictures	Yes	Yes
Insert shapes	Yes	Yes
Merge cells	Yes	Yes
Named ranges	Yes	Yes
Number formatting	Yes	Yes
Office Add-ins	Yes5	Yes
Offline viewing and authoring	No	Yes
PivotCharts	Yes1	Yes
PivotTables	Yes	Yes
Post to social network and present online	No	Yes
Power Pivot viewing	Yes	Yes
Power View viewing	Yes	Yes
Print	Yes	Yes
Real-time co-authoring	Yes	Yes
Recommended chart creation and editing with formatting controls	No	Yes
Refresh existing data connections	Yes	Yes
Remove duplicate values	Yes	Yes
Rename and add sheets	Yes	Yes
Rename file while workbook is open	Yes	No
Replace	Yes	Yes
Rights management: IRM and password security	No	Yes
Save or download a copy	Yes	Yes
Share	Yes	Yes
Sheet protection	Yes	Yes
Slicers	Yes	Yes
Sort and filter data	Yes	Yes
Spreadsheet audit and compliance	No	Yes
Status bar aggregates	Yes	Yes
Surveys	Yes	No
Tell Me	Yes	Yes
Text formatting	Yes	Yes
Total data	Yes	Yes
Undo and redo	Yes	Yes
VBA and macro scripting	Yes3	Yes
View 3D charts	Yes	Yes
What if analysis tools	No	Yes

Feature availability

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/office-online-service-description/off...

Thank you for your patience and time.

Wish you a nice day / night with lots of health, joy and love.

Nikolino

I know I don't know anything (Socrates)

[#14]

@HughBT 

You may vote here CELL function added to online  for this function. More votes sooner it could appear. 

[#15]

To get the Sheetname in Excel Online: In another Sheet (e.g. Sheet2)
B1=Sheet1!$A$1
C1=SUBSTITUTE(LEFT(FORMULATEXT(B1);FIND("!";FORMULATEXT(B1)));"=";"")
Result of C1: Sheet1!

The result of C1 can be used in Formulas such as INIDIRECT (…) and adapts automatically if sheet1 is renamed.
And of course, you can place this workaround on a technical hidden sheet (sheet2 in this example) , and display the result on the current sheet, if you really need the current sheet name

[#16]

Strange thing is that it works momentarily when you open the spreadsheet, displaying the correct value, before reverting to #VALUE!

[#17]

@Guy_Boswell 

If you had some value in last saved in desktop version file, it is shown in Online version from cache till you recalculate worksheet. After that an error.

[#18]

Thank you! I had to replace the semicolons with commas for it work on the desktop and online versions, but besides that this is a good workaround

[#19]

@jaredderaj555 

You may sync online regional settings with your local one in File->Options->Regional Format Settings

[#20]

@liverlarson 

Thanks to the help above the following formula worked for me.
=RIGHT(CELL("filename",A1),LEN(CELL("filename",A1))-FIND("]",CELL("filename",A1)))

CELL("filename",A1)  returns the full path filename and worksheet name with the work book in square brackets []

LEN (string) gives the length of a string

FIND (string1, string2)returns the position from the left of the first occurrence of string1 in string2. 

RIGHT(string ,n) gives the last n characters counting from the right.