INDIRECT Formula in Excel

 

What Does It Do ?

This function converts a plain piece of text which looks like a cell address into a usable cell reference.

The address can be either on the same worksheet or on a different worksheet.

Syntax

=INDIRECT(Text)

Formatting

No special formatting is needed.

Example 1

This example shows how data can be picked form other worksheets by using the worksheet name and a cell address.

The example uses three other worksheets named NORTH, SOUTH and EAST.

The data on these three sheets is laid out in the same cells on each sheet.

When a reference to a sheet is made the exclamation symbol ! needs to be placed between the sheet name and cell address acting as punctuation.

The =INDIRECT() created a reference to =NORTH!C8

Example 2

This example uses the same data as above, but this time the =SUM() function is used to calculate a total from a range of cells.

The =INDIRECT() created a reference to =SUM(SOUTH!C5:C7)