WHAT DOES THE SYMBOL"$" REPRESENT IN A EXCEL FORMULA?

SORRY FOR THE NOVICE EXCEL QUESTION - IM JUST LEARNING THE PROGRAM AND CANT
SEEM TO FIND IN "HELP" ALL SYMBOLS FOR FORMULAS

It's used to create an absolute cell reference, i.e. one that will not be
changed even when the formual is copied and pasted.

Without the the $ symbol, a formula such as =A1+B1 in cell C1 would be
changed to =A2+C2 if it was copied into cell C2, whilst this is useful if
you're creating a table of information, it can some times be a pain.

By changing the original formula to =$A$1+$B$1, it will not change when
copied.

The above example keeps it entirely intact, you can just put $ signs in
front of some parts of the formula to keep them intact, and have other parts
change e.g. =$A$1+B1, would allow the second cell reference to change with
the location of the formula.

HTH

Neil
www.nwarwick.co.k

P.S. Is your Caps lock key broken? It's considered bad manners to 'shout'

"EXCEL NOVICE" wrote:

> SORRY FOR THE NOVICE EXCEL QUESTION - IM JUST LEARNING THE PROGRAM AND CANT
> SEEM TO FIND IN "HELP" ALL SYMBOLS FOR FORMULAS

Is there a place one can go to get a complete listing of all the operators
used in the various formulas and what they do? I am not really "new" to
Excel, but I have always had a problem with formulas and what operators do
what.

Thanks,

Teri.

"Neil" wrote:

> It's used to create an absolute cell reference, i.e. one that will not be
> changed even when the formual is copied and pasted.
>
> Without the the $ symbol, a formula such as =A1+B1 in cell C1 would be
> changed to =A2+C2 if it was copied into cell C2, whilst this is useful if
> you're creating a table of information, it can some times be a pain.
>
> By changing the original formula to =$A$1+$B$1, it will not change when
> copied.
>
> The above example keeps it entirely intact, you can just put $ signs in
> front of some parts of the formula to keep them intact, and have other parts
> change e.g. =$A$1+B1, would allow the second cell reference to change with
> the location of the formula.
>
> HTH
>
> Neil
> www.nwarwick.co.k
>
> P.S. Is your Caps lock key broken? It's considered bad manners to 'shout'
>
> "EXCEL NOVICE" wrote:
>
> > SORRY FOR THE NOVICE EXCEL QUESTION - IM JUST LEARNING THE PROGRAM AND CANT
> > SEEM TO FIND IN "HELP" ALL SYMBOLS FOR FORMULAS

Teri,

Any half decent book should tell you what you want to know.

Just looking at my bookshelf, I have a couple by John Walkenbach, a dummies
guide, a SAMS Teach yourself in 24 hrs, and a couple of MS press books for
different versions of Excel.

Between them there's not much they don't know, and if there's anything else
your stuck on then you can always ask on these newsgroups.

Reagrds

Neil
www.nwarwick.co.uk

"Teri" wrote:

> Is there a place one can go to get a complete listing of all the operators
> used in the various formulas and what they do? I am not really "new" to
> Excel, but I have always had a problem with formulas and what operators do
> what.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Teri.
>
> "Neil" wrote:
>
> > It's used to create an absolute cell reference, i.e. one that will not be
> > changed even when the formual is copied and pasted.
> >
> > Without the the $ symbol, a formula such as =A1+B1 in cell C1 would be
> > changed to =A2+C2 if it was copied into cell C2, whilst this is useful if
> > you're creating a table of information, it can some times be a pain.
> >
> > By changing the original formula to =$A$1+$B$1, it will not change when
> > copied.
> >
> > The above example keeps it entirely intact, you can just put $ signs in
> > front of some parts of the formula to keep them intact, and have other parts
> > change e.g. =$A$1+B1, would allow the second cell reference to change with
> > the location of the formula.
> >
> > HTH
> >
> > Neil
> > www.nwarwick.co.k
> >
> > P.S. Is your Caps lock key broken? It's considered bad manners to 'shout'
> >
> > "EXCEL NOVICE" wrote:
> >
> > > SORRY FOR THE NOVICE EXCEL QUESTION - IM JUST LEARNING THE PROGRAM AND CANT
> > > SEEM TO FIND IN "HELP" ALL SYMBOLS FOR FORMULAS

The $ is not an operator, so you would not find it there.

Knowing more about the answer now, why not try looking in your HELP. (F1).

Try the Answer wizard (search) absolute cell reference
then you should find a topic "difference between relative and absolute addresses.

You might also look at some Excel Tutorials and save your money to buy
a more decent desk reference not directed to beginners.
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel....htm#tutorials

---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"Teri" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> Is there a place one can go to get a complete listing of all the operators
> used in the various formulas and what they do? I am not really "new" to
> Excel, but I have always had a problem with formulas and what operators do
> what.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Teri.
>
> "Neil" wrote:
>
> > It's used to create an absolute cell reference, i.e. one that will not be
> > changed even when the formual is copied and pasted.
> >
> > Without the the $ symbol, a formula such as =A1+B1 in cell C1 would be
> > changed to =A2+C2 if it was copied into cell C2, whilst this is useful if
> > you're creating a table of information, it can some times be a pain.
> >
> > By changing the original formula to =$A$1+$B$1, it will not change when
> > copied.
> >
> > The above example keeps it entirely intact, you can just put $ signs in
> > front of some parts of the formula to keep them intact, and have other parts
> > change e.g. =$A$1+B1, would allow the second cell reference to change with
> > the location of the formula.
> >
> > HTH
> >
> > Neil
> > www.nwarwick.co.k
> >
> > P.S. Is your Caps lock key broken? It's considered bad manners to 'shout'
> >
> > "EXCEL NOVICE" wrote:
> >
> > > SORRY FOR THE NOVICE EXCEL QUESTION - IM JUST LEARNING THE PROGRAM AND CANT
> > > SEEM TO FIND IN "HELP" ALL SYMBOLS FOR FORMULAS

This is a useful forum, and I'm grateful for the impressive and helpful knowledge base here, but... If freakin' Microsoft had better help resources we would not need to rely so much on each other.

Their search algorithm if often useless for my needs, and I've carped about it frequently, for years... and years... When you type in "$" to get help using Search, online OR Offline, you get nothing useful. Rediculous, isn't it? And annoying?

I think so...

My argument (in the classic sense) is that we should not need to buy books, take weeks to learn VBA (and have it WORK!), and have such difficulty negotiating the software if there were better help resources bundled within the software, and it was written to be much more user friendly. Let's all ***** to MS and see if they do anything... in our lifetimes...

Mark
LTUser
aka Brainless in Boston

Hi Mark,
Unfortunately manuals distributed with software is mostly a thing
of the past. There is a limit to how many cargo planes worth of
manuals you stuff into a cubicle, and certainly a limit on how much
would be useful to you.

Microsoft provided the newsgroup where your question was actually
answered, they originally hosted newsgroups for many other products
as well in earlier days, now just Microsoft products on their servers.

In any case it is newsgroups where your question was posted and
answered. The "forum" that you posted through is nothing more than
an advertising portal that destroys useful Google web searches and
to a lesser extent also harms Google Groups (newsgroup) searches.

You should first look in Excel Help. It may take some getting used to
but most of the information you need is there. Once you know an
answer try to find it in Help again to find additional information and
it will help you in learning to use Help more efficiently.

The fact that web searches don't work very well is largely due to
duplications caused by about 80 so called "forums", one of which you
are using. I would highly recommend that you learn to use HELP and
read online tutorials, and that when necessary you post directly to
a newsgroup and not through a web site.

There are certainly a lot of people here in the newsgroups that share
your concerns about documentation and help from Microsoft, but
most of your use is going to come from experience from yourself
and as shared with others. You don't expect a car company to
teach you to drive, or teach you how to fix your car. You'd be rather
pressed to find which of a 100 fuses or circuit breakers might be
responsible for an electrical problem in your car..
---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"LTUser54" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> This is a useful forum, and I'm grateful for the impressive and helpful
> knowledge base here, but... If freakin' Microsoft had better help
> resources we would not need to rely so much on each other.
>
> Their search algorithm if often useless for my needs, and I've carped
> about it frequently, for years... and years... When you type in "$" to
> get help using Search, online OR Offline, you get nothing useful.
> Rediculous, isn't it? And annoying?
>
> I think so...
>
> My argument (in the classic sense) is that we should not need to buy
> books, take weeks to learn VBA (and have it WORK!), and have such
> difficulty negotiating the software if there were better help resources
> bundled within the software, and it was written to be much more user
> friendly. Let's all ***** to MS and see if they do anything... in our
> lifetimes...
>
> Mark
> LTUser
> aka Brainless in Boston
>
>
> --
> LTUser54
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> LTUser54's Profile: http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=33459
> View this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=542000
>