I need an Excel formula that will reference a previous column <nevermind!>

[Sukhoi]

Well, I guess it's not really a formula, but I need some way to use the value of the cell immediately to the left of the cell the 'formula' is in. For example I'd want to put it in B5 and have it display what is in A5. But, I need something that isn't cell specific, so I can use it anywhere on the spreadsheet. Is this possible? Thanks!

 

[adams]

If you just put
=(A5)
into cell B5 that will show you the value of A5.
I think that then you can just copy and paste this formula into any cell of your sheet. It will just become a relative formula, displaying the value of whatever cell is to the left of it.
At least I think it will

 

[Mday]

go to the cell you want to copy TO, press &quot;=&quot; on the keyboard. then select any cell you want to copy FROM, press &quot;enter&quot;

this will copy ANYTHING, formula, or value of that selected cell...

 

[Mark R]

You could use the R1C1 style cell reference.

You need to activate this mode, under Tools->Options->General->R1C1 notation

In this case, R1C1 refers to the top-left cell, whereas R[-1]C[-1] refers to the cell one to the left, and up.

 

[Sukhoi]

adams, thanks, but I guess I wasn't specific enough in my question, because your suggestion won't work for what I want to do (although, what you said will work ).

Mark R, thanks too, but that also won't work for what I need to do.

---------------

I'll try to re-explain what I need to do. Basically, I need to be able to somehow be able to access the column to the left of the column that the formula is in.

Say I have a bunch of numbers in columns A and B. I'd want a formula to put in the cells in column C that would sum starting at column A, all the way up to the column to the left of the column the formula is in(in this case it's column C). Thus column C would have the sum of the data in columns A and B. Then I want to add another data column to the left of the column with the formula in it. I'd have data in columns A,B,C, and I'd want the forumla in column D (which was in C before it moved when I added the column) to sum columns A,B,C instead of just A,B without me having to change the formula.

Is this possible? I tried putting =sum(R[]C1:R[]C[-1]) in column C and that works fine, but it doesn't work when I add the new column and what was in column C becomes column D.

I hope that made more sense.

 

[Sukhoi]

^

 

[Sukhoi]

Nevermind, I found a solution.

 

[ApacheXMD]

so how'd you do it?

-patchy

 

[Sukhoi]

I had forgotten about the autosum function, and it seems to work fine even if I add a column to the left of where the function is.