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How do I freeze a cell reference when copying the cell

Asked by alan griffin

When I want to copy a cell containing a mathmatical calculation which has references to one or more other cells (e.g. to cell e12), how do I freeze the reference so that it always refers back to exactly that cell (i.e. always to e12) irrespective of where I place the copy? Normally the references change according to the row or column the cell is copied into and I want to prevent this change.

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marcus aurelius
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Best marcus aurelius (adbiz) said : 		#1

What you want to accomplish is called an absolute reference.

You achieve this by prefixing the cell reference with $.

e.g. $e$2

There are several scenarios:

1) $e2 <--- only the column e is fixed. The row can/will change.
2) e$2 <--- only the row is fixed. The column can/will change.
3) $e$2 <--- both row and column are fixed.

When you type the cell reference in, or it is entered when you click a cell, you have to manually add the $.

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alan griffin (alan-griffin) said : 		#2

Thank you, that answers my question very well.

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Bubba Gump (stoffman) said : 		#3

Is there keystroke you can use to toggle through the various options for placing the $? In Excel, this can be done with F4 while editing a formula.

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Tony Pursell (ajpursell) said : 		#4

Hi Bubba

Shift-F4

It's in the Help!

Tony

PS Please don't not hijack Solved questions - we prefer you to open a new question.