Sheet reference messes up sorting - bug or feature?

Question

Suppose I have a 4-column table.

Row 1 is: A1 = "Name", B1 = "FirstName", C1 = "NameAgain", D1 = "FirstNameAgain"
Row 2 is: A2 = "Doe", B2 = "John", C2 = A2, D2 = Sheet1!B2
Row 3 is: A3 = "Smith", B3 = "Jane", C3 = A3, D3 = B3

The table therefore looks as follows:

Name,FirstName,NameAgain,FirstNameAgain
Doe,John,Doe,John
Smith,Jane,Smith,Jane

Note that only cell D2 (the second "John") references its "source cell" by the sheetname.

Now let's select the entire table and enable a Filter.

When now sorting (for example) by Name (Z to A), one would now expect row 3 to be put on top, causing rows 3 and 2 to switch positions.

The table would then look like this:

Name,FirstName,NameAgain,FirstNameAgain
Smith,Jane,Smith,Jane
Doe,John,Doe,John

What we get however is:

Name,FirstName,NameAgain,FirstNameAgain
Smith,Jane,Smith,Jane
Doe,John,Doe,Jane

The rows are switching positions as expected, but the cell that has the sheetname reference still references the cell it was referencing before (B2), instead of adapting its reference to the new position of the row (as the "new" C3 does correctly, referencing A3 now instead of A2).

Bug? Feature? If feature, what on Earth is this good for? (Plus, it's dangerous imo...)

Thx a lot!

Answer 1

Consider it a feature - to discourage people from bothering to fully qualify a cell reference when all the extra characters are not necessary.