please I need help with indirect (reference a cell value) and use that value in a formula
hi, as you know, array formulas get crazy with thousands of rows for no reason, so I want to limit my arrays using a referenced cell value using indirect, but I always fail to write it right for some reason.
=COUNTA(L2:L)
this gives me the value I need = reference value
now I want to reference that cell value inside a formula like
=UNIQUE(M2:M reference)
=ArrayFormula(COUNTIF(M2:M reference;UNIQUE(P2:P reference)))
I know I have to use indirect, but the syntax always fails for me
=ARRAYFORMULA(IF(LEN(M2:M&P2:P), COUNTIF(M2:M, P2:P), ))
=ARRAYFORMULA(COUNTIF(INDIRECT("M2:M"&COUNTA(M2:M)+1),
INDIRECT("P2:P"&COUNTA(P2:P)+1)))
Related
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$1) reference you mentioned and that should solve the problem of formulas going haywire due to rows deletion in Form Responses tab. Please do test it out.
INDIRECT("Sheet!"&A1)
INDIRECT("A1")
My issue is that I need to reference a cell (A1) which will either be the name of a state that can be found in column L, or it can be "All States" which I then want to include all results of column L. I can't work out how to include this.
=SUMPRODUCT(--(IF(A1="All States",Data!$L:$L,Data!$L:$L=A1)),Data!Q:Q)
I want to add a bunch more criteria based on the above so I don’t want to go down the route of imbedding the sumproduct in an if function because the formula will quickly become too unweildy.
You have a lot of choices. Using your initial formula I would tweak it to
(A) =SUMPRODUCT((IF($A$1="All States",1,($L$2:$L$11=$A$1)))*($Q$2:$Q$11))
But this would need to be entered as an array formula so instead of just confirming with ENTER, you need CONTROL+SHIFT+ENTER. You will know you have done it right when { } show up around your formula. Note that they cannot be added manually.
A non array type formula which would be faster I believe would be to look at your two options. You are either dealing with a single state or all states. Set up an IF check to determine if you need to sum all of column Q, or if you need to find a single value from column Q. I used the following formula:
(B) =IF(A1="all states",SUM($Q$2:$Q$11),INDEX($Q$2:$Q$11,MATCH($A$1,$L$2:$L$11,0)))
A bit of a cheat but but simplifies things, is to add a final state to the bottom of your list in L and call is "All States". In the corresponding row in Q place =sum(First Cell:Last Cell). If you do that then you can use the following formula:
(C) =SUMPRODUCT(($L$2:$L$12=$A$1)*($Q$2:$Q$12))
That are other options out there as well, just thought I would show some options.
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.
I have an IF statement that says if AG, AL, AJ all have Yes in the cell then I want it to go to a lookup table to retrieve a result. I then want it to take that result and perform a calculation but I don't know how to write it.
If one of the three cells has a no in it, then I just want it to return the value in cell AK
Here is an example:
IF(AG="Yes", AI="Yes", AJ="Yes"), VLOOKUP(Payout Table!A:B,201, 2,True), (O7*H17*AK) False=AK
This is my first time trying to do this so if you can recommend a link I can go to too better understand the correct formula that would be great.
What you want here is the AND function. AND returns TRUE if all of its own arguments are TRUE. ie:
=IF(AND(AG1="Yes", AI1="Yes", AJ1="Yes"), VLOOKUP(Payout Table!A:B,201, 2,True)*(O7*H17*AK), AK1)
Note also that I have fixed your formula for making the VLOOKUP amount multiply against your other cells, and also that I have added row references to what you had there ("AG" is not a valid cell reference; replace "AG1" with the appropriate row number you want to check against).
You need to use AND as well as change the order of your VLOOKUP like below:
=IF(AND(AG="Yes",AI="Yes",AJ="Yes"),VLOOKUP(201,Payout Table!A:B, 2,True)*(O7*H17*AK), AK1)
Cell A1=Alice
Cell A2=Adam Love $A$1
How can I make the cell A1 content as variable so I could use it in anywhere in my worksheet?
You don't have to do something special to achieve this; every cell is available by its cell reference [file].[sheet].[Col][Row]. The only thing is that you can't just put the cell reference as plain text into another cell - you'll have to use a function or a formula instead.
In you example, your aim is to concatenate a string ("Adam Love") and the value of another cell. So, the solution is to use the CONCATENATE() function in the following way:
=CONCATENATE("Adam Love "; $A$1)
Another option is to define a name (Data > Define Range...) say Name:
_A
and Range:
$Sheet1.$A$1
then apply a formula such as:
="Adam Love "&_A
but for your example the effort of setting up the defined name is unlikely to be justified by savings in keying. However this can at times be useful, for example where sheet names are lengthy or keying them is prone to error (the formula above returns the same result even if on a different sheet) and complicated formula can be easier to read (eg=Qty*Price).