Using "INDIRECT" function in the "SUMPRODUCT" formula for True/False Cell Reference

Question

This is the formula that I am currently using:

=SUMPRODUCT((INDIRECT("A2"):INDIRECT("A"&(ROW()-1))=A359)*1)

It works great, but I would like to use this instead:

=SUMPRODUCT((INDIRECT("A2"):INDIRECT("A"&(ROW()-1))=INDIRECT("A"&(ROW())))*1)

Unfortunately I get a #VALUE!. What am I doing wrong? Both INDIRECT("A"&ROW(())) and A359 return the same value, so I'm not sure why this won't work.

The reason I am not using a simple COUNTIF function is because I stripped my formula of all unnecessary components and only left the part that I am having trouble with (i.e. I need to use the SUMPRODUCT formula and a COUNTIF formula will not work)

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

I'm not sure why you need INDIRECT instead of ordinary cell references but the specific problem here is that ROW function returns an "array", even when it returns a single value, e.g. it returns {"x"} rather than just "x" - and in some circumstances Excel can't process that.

Try wrapping the second ROW function in a SUM function - the value doesn't change but it gets rid of the array, i.e.

=SUMPRODUCT((INDIRECT("A2"):INDIRECT("A"&(ROW()-1))=INDIRECT("A"&SUM(ROW())))*1)

This will eliminate #VALUE! eror while leaving the essential structure of your formula unchanged

Answer 2

Try this one:

=SUMPRODUCT((($A$2:INDEX($A:$A,ROW()-1))=INDEX($A:$A,ROW()))*1)

it gives you the same result.

But above formula is volatile. Instead I would use next one, say in B3 :

=SUMPRODUCT((($A$2:$A2)=$A3)*1)