Referencing Other Cells
Part of the Fundamentals section of Coddy's Excel journey — lesson 17 of 42.
A cell reference is just an address: column letter, then row number. A2 is column A, row 2. And a formula can point at any address on the sheet, the referenced cells don't have to sit next to each other or next to the formula.
This is how real tables work. Picture a shopping list with prices in column A and quantities in column B. The cost of the row is price times quantity:
=A2*B2Put that in C2 and the total for row 2 appears, pulled from two different columns. Each row gets its own version: row 3's total is =A3*B3, and so on down the table.
Notice the pattern: the formula describes a relationship ("this row's price times this row's quantity"), not specific numbers. Change a price, and the total follows. That single idea powers every invoice, budget and report ever built in a spreadsheet.
Challenge
BeginnerA tiny shop table: row 1 has headers, and rows 2-3 each hold a Price (column A) and a Qty (column B).
Fill in the Total column with price times quantity:
- In
C2: the total for row 2 - In
C3: the total for row 3
Reference the cells, prices and quantities will change during testing.
Try it yourself
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Price | Qty | Total | ||||
| 2 | 4 | 3 | |||||
| 3 | 10 | 2 | |||||
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Test yourselfThis lesson includes a short quiz. Start the lesson to answer it and track your progress.
All lessons in Fundamentals
1Meet the Spreadsheet
What Is a Spreadsheet?Cells and ReferencesYour First CellsRows, Columns and the GridRecap: Meet the Grid4Cell References
Referencing Other CellsFormulas That UpdateChained FormulasRanges from A1 to A10Recap: Cell References