I fully realize that this should be incredibly simple but I am actually struggling to resolve. Please see the following example. Using the example formula, the formula continues to work properly if any one of the numerical values in range B2:G6 are deleted and left blank. However, as soon as text is inserted into ANY cells of the B2:G6 , the formula fails and returns error. How do I revise the formula to continue to provide me the sum of the valid intersections that remain numerical when some of the criteria range (whether a good intersection point or not, is text)?
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I help a small business with an application which is entirely run from google sheets and google forms. The issue is that from time to time the business owner will go into the sheet and delete rows of old data. I've noticed that as a result, some of the formulas will change the row which they are looking at. This is despite me using explicit cell references such as $A$1 for example.
So what I would like to do, is use somehow compare the cell which contains the formula, with a string of what the formula should be, then return a value if the formula matches. I had thought an =If function would solve this but so far I am not having any luck.
This is what I have used so far:
Lets say cell A1 contains the formula I want to check and the formula is (this works fine): =FILTER(Dashboard!A2:A, Dashboard!C2:C1 = TODAY())*
I am using =IF(A1="=FILTER(Dashboard!A2:A, Dashboard!C2:C*1 = TODAY())",True,False)
I am expecting the function to compare the value of A1 with my string and return the value True. If the formula does not match the string it should return the value False.
I currently am returning the value of False despite the formula and string being an exact match. I assume this is because my =If statement is looking at the value returned by the =Filter function rather than the formula itself.
Any help would be appreciated.
thanks
You could just use INDIRECT() in the place of explicit cell ($A$1) reference you mentioned and that should solve the problem of formulas going haywire due to rows deletion in Form Responses tab. Please do test it out.
INDIRECT("Sheet!"&A1)
INDIRECT("A1")
I have a couple of rather large nested if functions in my spreadsheet. It sure would be nice to have an alternative method. Problem is I'm using a wildcard (*) in my lookup because the source text has slight variations (date for example).
For example, if my list of data contains:
VENMO PAYMENT 220828 1022093447487 BRENDA HOSPY
VENMO PAYMENT 220813 1031323447487 BRENDA HOSPY
I want these to show in an adjacent column of cells as just Venmo
Currently my if function in that second column of cells is:
=IF(COUNTIF($F10,"*APPLE.COM/BILL*"),"AP",
IF(COUNTIF($F10,"IIA VOYA*"),"VOYA",
IF(COUNTIF($F10,"VENMO PAYMENT*"),"Venmo",
IF(COUNTIF($F10,etc...
This works fine but quickly gets unruly as more things get added.
I've spent a great deal of time searching for functions and processes that would make this easier, or at least more compact, but I can't find a way with typical functions like vlookup or index/match.
If I've explained this in a comprehensible fashion perhaps you've seen or experienced a similar situation and could offer a suggestion. It would be appreciated!
I'm not opposed to using a programming function.
I've looked at, and for, various Excel functions or combinations with no luck on my own or online.
I have created a structure as below
Formula present in B2 is as below
=IFERROR(INDEX($F$2:$F$9,MIN(IF(COUNTIF(A2,"*"&$E$2:$E$9&"*")>0,ROW($E$2:$E$9),9999999)-1)),"---")
Enter it as an Array Formula using Ctrl+Shift+Enter
It will search all the strings present in column E in A2 when found will return all the row numbers of column E where there is a match, i have then used min to get the first one, and if not found it will return 9999999, and as the data is starting from row 2 i have added -1 to make it equal to the data index. after that i have called the index to search value present at that index in column F. and at the end used the if error function to show --- where no match was found and 999999 was returned.
I am learning how to use formulas in spreadsheets, I do use libre office.
I need to sort out data in a quite huge messy spreadsheet.
Each column contains mixed data, the sheet is huge, dozens of columns and thousands of rows, if the spreadsheet does not contain errors each cell in a row either contains a different keyword or is empty, there should not be two cells in the same row containing the same keyword.
The problem to solve is to sort out all the data so to reach to have a new spreadsheet in which each cell marked with a given specific keyword is kept in the same position but placed in one column dedicated to that same keyword.
the kind of spreadsheet with mixed up cells to be sorted out
the data in the spreadsheet has to be fixed so to appear in this way
A formula that can be used to extract sorted out data from a cell is the following:
=IF(SEARCH("Text1";B2;1);B2;0)
The formula can be dragged to each cell below to hit the proper cell next to it. The result is correct.
The results are correct, but I do not know why the expected 0 is not printed, there is #VALUE! instead
The logic is very simple, if the cell contains the keyword or any other text that contains that keyword the result is the full content of that cell, otherwise the result is 0.
Here comes the first question, why do I get #VALUE! as a result for those cells that do not contain the keyword? I expected to get 0 instead, just as indicated in the formula,
I tried to leave this filed empty and also to put the 0 result in quotes, the actual result is always the same, #VALUE!...
However, of course this formula extracts only the information contained in one column, so for each other column the process must be repeated.
In order to avoid to create a column with the formula for each column in the spreadsheet or anyway to process each column one by one and more importantly to have then to merge all the results to form one columns containing only cells with a given keyword I thought to use the same formula extending the parsing to each next cell in the row as follows:
=IF(SEARCH("text";B2;1);B2;IF(SEARCH("text";C2;1);C2;IF(SEARCH("text";D2;1);D2;0)))
The logic is very simple and should output in one go a column containing all the cells containing the keyword that are found in the row, check if the first cell in the row contains a word using the search function, if does then the result is the content of that cell, otherwise perform the next test, the next test is the same, check if the next cell contains a certain word using the search function, if does then the result is the content of that cell, otherwise proceed to the next test…. and so on until last test, if no test gave a true result then print 0 (but we get #VALUE!, OK I could live with that...).
In theory should work for a any number of cells, but in the practice does not at all, in fact does work only for the first IF test and cell indicated in the formula.
WHY?
The result using the extended version of the formula to parse N cells in sequence is the same obtained with the simple formula to parse only one cell
Finally, how do I resolve this problem using IF and Search?
Is there any other better approach and way to solve this kind of problems and sort out data in huge spreadsheets of this kind?
Thank you for any hint and help.
The answers in topics with similar titles haven't given me much of a resolution to my particular problem, but possibly I am not asking the right question. It might help knowing I'm an absolute noob when it comes to spreadsheets, so finding my way around is next to nil.
Currently I can set a basic function in the first cell A1 =ROW()
Simple right? Well now here comes the complication. If I click on the bottom right of the cell and start dragging I can then apply that very same function to a whole range of cells. Let's say I apply it from A1:A10. Every cell within this group now has the same function.
Hooray! We did it, right? I applied a function to a range of cells each with their own output. But wait, if I then go back to the original cell and change its formula none of the other cells change with it. GRRRRR!!!!
There are a couple of fixes I've come up with but don't necessarily know how to implement. The first is to have every cell link back to the original cell and reference its function. This would be useful if I wanted to randomly scatter dependent cells about the document. The other would be much more useful in an orderly group where you know the exact dimensions by specifying in the original cell the size of the array you want to apply the function to.
With that said, let me hear your thoughts.
The closest I've come to an answer is to use FORMULA() which returns the formula used by a cell as text. Unfortunately all answers on evaluating the text resort to scripting. How strange! I thought something like this would be common. Might as well get to scripting.
Hold on, I may have spoke too soon. An array can be made with =MUNIT(), but it's only square. Drats!
Ok... I'm hoping the zebra stripes will eventually become its own answer unless someone else beats me to it. So a simple array can be made with ={1,2;3,4} where commas separate values by column and semicolons for values by row except to generate it you have to press Control+Shift+Enter (because reasons?). I'm thinking now that I'll need to have functions that can generate lists of values based on a single function for each row, and pray that it'll work. So, back to looking. (Wow this is taking forever)
The way I was hypothesizing can't even generate a 1x1, e.g., ={ROW()} returns Err:512 which is a formula overflow.
Alright, in summary so far I've narrowed down the two options,
1) link every cell to the original formula
2) populate an array with a single formula
each with their own incomplete answer,
a) use FORMULA() to return the formula of a cell as text
b) create a hypothetical array like so ={LIST_OF_VALUES()}
These both require a strange form of the nonexistent EVALUATE() function to 'function' correctly. Isn't that fun?
Google Sheets handles case b by allowing ={ROW()}Control+Shift+Enter to generate =ArrayFormula({ROW()}). Working with the general case of any sized array being filled with a single function doesn't exist in the world of spreadsheets it seems. That's very saddening because I can't think of a much better tool for what I want to do. Copy paste it is until I need to use macros.
Depending on your specific use case, creating a user-defined function may help:
use the Basic IDE to create your function;
apply it to any cells on any sheet;
modifying the Basic code will affect all cells where the function is used.
I've elaborated the steps in an answer on superuser.
Sure, you could write some complex code to update functions, but wouldn't the easy way be just to drag it to the same range of cells the same way you did before? It should properly overwrite the existing code in there, and if it doesn't, you can just as easily delete the outdated code and drag the new code in.
Probably the best approach is to simply drag the amended formula over the range of cells (as advised by OldBunny2800). This is less error prone and easier to maintain than a custom macro.
Another option would be to use an array function. Then you only have to edit the function once, and the same edit will be automatically applied to the whole range of cells in that array function.
In OpenOffice.org Calc, I would like to apply a formula to a column that references a cell from the same row but in a different column. I.e., =C1*48 in cell D1, but I want all cells in column D to do this without having to copy the formula to each one manually. Or another way of saying it, for each cell in C that has a number, I want to fill in the corresponding row-cell in D with a formula value based on that number. So far, all I can see from the documentation is that I'd have to copy/adjust the formula for every new row in the spreadsheet. And since I have 4 such columns that need calculation, this will get to be tiresome. I have little experience with spreadsheets at all, so I'm hoping that my problem is actually very simple, and that I just am looking at the wrong parts of the documentation.
I don't have OpenOffice in front of me, but it tries really hard to be Excel like in many ways, so usually assumptions about Calc based on Excel are fairly close to reality.
In Excel, a formula in cell D1, that points to a cell in C1, is treated as a relative reference - that is, one column back from where I am now. So when that formula is filled into other cells (either by Fill Down, or dragging the little handle in the corner of the cell outline, or by copy-pasting the formula into a range of selected cells) the new formulas are similarly treated, by default, as referring to the cell that is one column back from them, in the same row.
To force a formula to use an absolute reference, one specifies the cell address with a dollar sign - $C$1 will always point to (use) the contents of cell C1, regardless of where the formula ends up. ($C1 and C$1 are alternates that allow one parameter of the address to change in the usual relative sense while fixing the other half in place... this probably isn't important to you yet).
In other words, I'd expect that you can type the formulas in the first row of your OpenOffice Calc sheet and copy them down to the rest of the row, and things will just work.
If you want to extend your range down you can do this by calculating the first 2 cells with your formula and then highlighting them. You now grab the little square on the bottom right of the highlighted area and drag that down, across or both.
If you have a specific cell (e.g. D2) which you wish to have remain in all the cells you extend your range to, then in your 2 initial cell calculations use the following:
Extending Down
=G2*D$2
=G3*D$2
Extending Across
=G2*$D2
=H2*$D2
Extending Down and Across
Use $D$2
From your question it seems that you are trying to apply the same formula on whole row (or column) of cells and show the result on another row (or column).
The best way to do this is to use something called array formulas or array functions (in libre office). This link has very good explanation - https://help.libreoffice.org/Calc/Array_Functions
The way you would implement this in your case is
Type this formula in cell D1
=C1:C30 *48
and press ctrl + shift + enter
The formula now looks like this with the flower braces {..}
={C1:C30 *48}
and the formula gets applied all the way from D1 to D30.
You can even extrapolate the same concept to a whole matrix (for example: A1:C10)
(The way to tell excel/open office/ libre office that you wrote an array formula is to press ctrl + shift + enter. Never press enter as that will break the array function and convert it to a regular function)