Excel Reference To Current Cell

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/757413

  •  09-09-2019
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Question

How do I obtain a reference to the current cell?

For example, if I want to display the width of column A, I could use the following:

=CELL("width", A2)

However, I want the formula to be something like this:

=CELL("width", THIS_CELL)
Was it helpful?

Solution

Create a named formula called THIS_CELL

  1. In the current worksheet, select cell A1 (this is important!)
  2. Open Name Manager (Ctl+F3)
  3. Click New...
  4. Enter "THIS_CELL" (or just "THIS", which is my preference) into Name:

  5. Enter the following formula into Refers to:

    =!A1

    NOTE: Be sure cell A1 is selected. This formula is relative to the ActiveCell.

  6. Under Scope: select Workbook.

  7. Click OK and close the Name Manager

Use the formula in the worksheet exactly as you wanted

=CELL("width",THIS_CELL)

EDIT: Better solution than using INDIRECT()

It's worth noting that the solution I've given should be preferred over any solution using the INDIRECT() function for two reasons:

  1. It is nonvolatile, while INDIRECT() is a volatile Excel function, and as a result will dramatically slow down workbook calculation when it is used a lot.
  2. It is much simpler, and does not require converting an address (in the form of ROW() COLUMN()) to a range reference to an address and back to a range reference again.

EDIT: Also see this question for more information on workbook-scoped, sheet dependent named ranges.

EDIT: Also see @imix's answer below for a variation on this idea (using RC style references). In that case, you could use =!RC for the THIS_CELL named range formula, or just use RC directly.

OTHER TIPS

Several years too late:

Just for completeness I want to give yet another answer:

First, go to Excel-Options -> Formulas and enable R1C1 references. Then use

  =CELL("width", RC)

RC always refers the current Row, current Column, i.e. "this cell".

Rick Teachey's solution is basically a tweak to make the same possible in A1 reference style (see also GSerg's comment to Joey's answer and note his comment to Patrick McDonald's answer).

Cheers
:-)

You could use

=CELL("width", INDIRECT(ADDRESS(ROW(), COLUMN())))

=ADDRESS(ROW(),COLUMN(),4) will give us the relative address of the current cell. =INDIRECT(ADDRESS(ROW(),COLUMN()-1,4)) will give us the contents of the cell left of the current cell =INDIRECT(ADDRESS(ROW()-1,COLUMN(),4)) will give us the contents of the cell above the current cell (great for calculating running totals)

Using CELL() function returns information about the last cell that was changed. So, if we enter a new row or column the CELL() reference will be affected and will not be the current cell's any longer.

A2 is already a relative reference and will change when you move the cell or copy the formula.

Without INDIRECT(): =CELL("width", OFFSET($A$1,ROW()-1,COLUMN()-1) )

=ADDRESS(ROW(),COLUMN())
=ADDRESS(ROW(),COLUMN(),1)
=ADDRESS(ROW(),COLUMN(),2)
=ADDRESS(ROW(),COLUMN(),3)
=ADDRESS(ROW(),COLUMN(),4)

Inside tables you can use [@] which (unfortunately) Excel automatically expands to Table1[@] but it does work. (I'm using Excel 2010)

For example when having two columns [Change] and [Balance], putting this in the [Balance] column:

=OFFSET([@], -1, 0) + [Change]

Note of course that this depends on the order of the rows (just like most any other solution), so it's a bit fragile.

I found the best way to handle this (for me) is to use the following:

Dim MyString as String
MyString = Application.ThisCell.Address
Range(MyString).Select

Hope this helps.

There is a better way that is safer and will not slow down your application. How Excel is set up, a cell can have either a value or a formula; the formula can not refer to its own cell. You end up with an infinite loop, since the new value would cause another calculation... . Use a helper column to calculate the value based on what you put in the other cell. For Example:

Column A is a True or False, Column B contains a monetary value, Column C contains the folowing formula: =B1

Now, to calculate that column B will be highlighted yellow in a conditional format only if Column A is True and Column B is greater than Zero...

=AND(A1=True,C1>0)

You can then choose to hide column C

EDIT: the following is wrong, because Cell("width") returns the width of the last modified cell.

Cell("width") returns the width of the current cell, so you don't need a reference to the current cell. If you need one, though, cell("address") returns the address of the current cell, so if you need a reference to the current cell, use indirect(cell("address")). See the documentation: http://www.techonthenet.com/excel/formulas/cell.php

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