I want to create a summary file where I wish to import the data from cell D11 from some workbooks. For this I try to use INDIRECT to call the workbook O284, where O284 through O296 consists of strings like:
2015-01 (for O284), 2015-02 (for O285 etc)
and where O285 is the sheetname, which is consistent for each workbook hence the $$'s.
=INDIRECT("'C:\Path\["&O284&"]"&$O$285&"'!$D$11")
Running this however does not return a value, but merely a ####. I have all the workbooks opened. I suspect I conduct the INDIRECT snippet wrong, but I can't figure out how. Does anybody have a clue?
Regards,
Btw, is there a way to achieve the same thing as with INDIRECT that work with closed workbooks without using macros? Like a "paste value" or something which you can use in the same way as INDIRECT but that returns a digit, without the formula notation in the cell?
EDIT:
=INDIRECT(CONCATENATE("'C:\path\[";O282;"]";$O$283;"'!D11"))
works for getting the value "D11" from the workbook O282. When I drag this formula out, the next column will reference to workbook P282. However, it still get cell D11. I want it to get the E11 cell from this workbook, and work like this. Does anyone have any idea?
=INDIRECT(CONCATENATE("'C:\";[#Path];"\[";[#WorkbookName];"]";[#SheetName];"'!";ADDRESS(11;COLUMN() - 11)))
I think up code is something that can you want.
Showing #### is sometimes because of cell width.
Related
I want to refer to a cell value in another closed workbook with a formula (not VBA!). The Sheet name is stored as a variable (in the following example, C13 is "Sheet2").
If the other file is open, then following works:
=INDIRECT("[myExcelFile.xlsm]" & C13 & "!$A$1")
If the file is closed, the above formula doesn't work, as there is no absolute path given. But I got it work with following (give attention to ' instead of ":
='C:\data\[myExcelFile.xlsm]Sheet2'!$A$1
Now I want to replace the hardcoded "Sheet2" with a dynamic referenced value, means with C13 (as seen in the first code snippet).
Does anybody know a solution without using VBA or other libraries?
There is definitively no way to do this with standard formulas. However, a crazy sort of answer can be found here. It still avoids VBA, and it will allow you to get your result dynamically.
First, make the formula that will generate your formula, but don't add the = at the beginning!
Let us pretend that you have created this formula in cell B2 of Sheet1, and you would like the formula to be evaluated in column c.
Now, go to the Formulas tab, and choose "Define Name". Give it the name myResult (or whatever you choose), and under Refers To, write =evaluate(Sheet1!$B2) (note the $)
Finally, go to C2, and write =myResult. Drag down, and... voila!
I too was looking for the answer to referencing cells in a closed workbook. Here is the link to the solution (correct formula) below. I have tried it on my current project (referencing a single cell and an array of cells) and it works well with no errors. I hope it helps you.
https://www.extendoffice.com/documents/excel/4226-excel-reference-unopened-file.html
In the formula, E:\Excel file\ is the full file path of the unopened workbook, test.xlsx is the name of the workbook, Sheet2 is the sheet name which contains the cell value you need to reference from, and A:A,2,1 means the cell A2 will be referenced in the closed workbook. You can change them based on your needs.
If you want to manually select a worksheet to reference, please use this formula
=INDEX('E:\Excel file\[test.xlsx]sheetname'!A:A,2,1)
After applying this formula, you will get a Select Sheet dialog box, please select a worksheet and then click the OK button. Then the certain cell value of this worksheet will be referenced immediately.
The problem is that a link to a closed file works with index( but not with index(indirect(
It seems to me that it is a programming issue of the index function.
I solved it with a if clause row
C2=sheetname
if(c2=Sheet1,index(sheet1....),if(C2="Sheet2",index(sheet2....
I did it over five sheets, it's a long formula, but does what I need.
Check INDEX Function:
=INDEX('C:\path\[file.xlsm]Sheet1'!A10:B20;1;1)
Thank you for the great question. I want to clarify and second the solution posted by Philipp. The solution does the following:
Updates data from a closed Excel file, and
Does so "dynamically" (though not exactly - you'll see)
In his answer above, Philipp said: "The problem is that a link to a closed file works with index( but not with index(indirect("
I believe this is still true. (I'm using Office 365 here in March of 2021. It would be so nice if Microsoft allowed INDIRECT and INDEX to play nicely together with closed files!)
I can confirm that Philipp's workaround indeed works, practically speaking. From the user's point of view, it feels like what Chris, the OP, wants to do.
Let's say you want the contents of a given cell to be drawn from Sheet1, Sheet2 or Sheet3, which are from a closed file myExcelFile.xlsm. You will choose which sheet by changing the contents of a particular cell (C13, as in the OP Chris's question). One way to do this is to make it a drop-down list (using Data > Data Validation > Allow [List]). The list will have the following names:
Sheet1
Sheet2
Sheet3
(This will generalize without the drop-down list. For example, you can just type "Sheet2" into C13, and the relevant data from the closed file will appear; if you then type "Sheet3" then the data from that sheet will appear instead. Or you can have a column with the sheet names, and the next column over [with the formula below, adjusted] for the output from the closed file.)
The cell that will contain the referenced data from the other, closed sheet (myExcelFile.xlsm) will have:
=IFS(
C13="Sheet1",'C:\data\[myExcelFile.xlsm]Sheet1'!$A$1,
C13="Sheet2",'C:\data\[myExcelFile.xlsm]Sheet2'!$A$1,
C13="Sheet3",'C:\data\[myExcelFile.xlsm]Sheet3'!$A$1
)
And that's it.
It'll throw up a #REF error the first time you do this with myExcelFile.xlsm closed, but you can go to Data > Queries & Connections > Edit Links > Update Values and your values from the closed file should appear. (Personally, I set up a macro with a button to do the updating, instead of hunting through the menus.) The magic is that when you do Update Values, the data from all of the sheets in the closed file get loaded into the current Excel file - so you don't have to update every time you switch the reference to a different sheet (Sheet2 to Sheet3, for example).
Andrew
In Excel 2016 at least, you can use INDIRECT with a full path reference; the entire reference (including sheet name) needs to be enclosed by ' characters.
So this should work for you:
= INDIRECT("'C:\data\[myExcelFile.xlsm]" & C13 & "'!$A$1")
Note the closing ' in the last string (ie '!$A$1 surrounded by "")
=INDIRECT("'C:\Data["&A8&"]SheetNAME'!$G9")
where A8 contains myExcelFile.xlsm
and G9 contains your source workbook precious data.
OK,
Here's a dinosaur method for you on Office 2010.
Write the full address you want using concatenate (the "&" method of combining text).
Do this for all the addresses you need. It should look like:
="="&"'\FULL NETWORK ADDRESS including [Spreadsheet Name]"&W3&"'!$w4"
The W3 is a dynamic reference to what sheet I am using, the W4 is the cell I want to get from the sheet.
Once you have this, start up a macro recording session. Copy the cell and paste it into another. I pasted it into a merged cell and it gave me the classic "Same size" error. But one thing it did was paste the resulting text from my concatenate (including that extra "=").
Copy over however many you did this for. Then, go into each pasted cell, select he text and just hit enter. It updates it to an active direct reference.
Once you have finished, put the cursor somewhere nice and stop the macro. Assign it to a button and you are done.
It is a bit of a PITA to do this the first time, but once you have done it, you have just made the square peg fit that daamned round hole.
This seems to work with closed file: add a pivot table (rows, tabular layout, no subtotals, no grand totals) of the source to the current workbook, then reference all you want from that pivot table, INDIRECT, LOOKUPs,...
If you know the number of sheet you want to reference you can use below function to find out the name. Than you can use it in INDIRECT funcion.
Public Function GETSHEETNAME(address As String, Optional SheetNumber As Integer = 1) As String
Set WS = GetObject(address).Worksheets
GETSHEETNAME = WS(SheetNumber).Name
End Function
This solution doesn't require referenced workbook to be open - Excel gonna open it by itself (but it's gonna be hidden).
I was disappointed so I made the following workaround:
I created my INDIRECT commands and stored them just outside the desired range. Of course I get errors when the source workbook is closed but they light up when it's open.
So I open the source workbook temporarily.
Then I created a macro that copies the INDIRECT formulas from outside the range and pastes them inside the range. All cells are filled in with the right values.
The macro then copy-pastes the values of the range to the range on top of themselves. This deletes the formulas but keeps their values.
Then I close the source workbook. My values stay intact where I want them and my INDIRECT formulas stay just outside the desired range in case I want to refresh them by repeating the procedure!
This workaround saves me the error of the indirect formulas when the source workbook is closed, and most importantly it saves a lot of time in recalculations!
Hope this works for you too!
I have a simple formula (an AutoSum) in a protected sheet and locked cell. My VBA code does not access this cell directly. Despite this, the formula sometimes changes to the numeric result when the sum changes. Any ideas how I can prevent this from happening?
It sounds like the Cell value is being set implicitly which over writes the formula. You may have a cell reference that you are missing. If your code does not set anything in that cell, then there is something in your workbook doing it. Try going to the Formulas tab and selecting Trace Dependents. See if an arrow points to something you were not aware of. Some of my sheets get so huge that I can loose track of things. Especially if I do any cutting and pasting.
Is it possible to output the result of a formula on a different cell without the use of VBA and without directly reffering to the cell containing the formula (e.g. writting =C1 into the output cell)?
I know that this can be easily done with the help of VBA, but I was wondering if there really is no simpler way to achieve this.
I don't think so, if you dont want VBA then all I can think of is to lock the cells so they can't be updated.
How to lock just a range of cells
As far as I know all formulas display their results within the cell they occupy.
if you want to pull a value from a cell without directly referencing the cell address, you could indirectly by using the offset function. However even the offset function needs to reference at least one cell on the worksheet.
I want to refer to a cell value in another closed workbook with a formula (not VBA!). The Sheet name is stored as a variable (in the following example, C13 is "Sheet2").
If the other file is open, then following works:
=INDIRECT("[myExcelFile.xlsm]" & C13 & "!$A$1")
If the file is closed, the above formula doesn't work, as there is no absolute path given. But I got it work with following (give attention to ' instead of ":
='C:\data\[myExcelFile.xlsm]Sheet2'!$A$1
Now I want to replace the hardcoded "Sheet2" with a dynamic referenced value, means with C13 (as seen in the first code snippet).
Does anybody know a solution without using VBA or other libraries?
There is definitively no way to do this with standard formulas. However, a crazy sort of answer can be found here. It still avoids VBA, and it will allow you to get your result dynamically.
First, make the formula that will generate your formula, but don't add the = at the beginning!
Let us pretend that you have created this formula in cell B2 of Sheet1, and you would like the formula to be evaluated in column c.
Now, go to the Formulas tab, and choose "Define Name". Give it the name myResult (or whatever you choose), and under Refers To, write =evaluate(Sheet1!$B2) (note the $)
Finally, go to C2, and write =myResult. Drag down, and... voila!
I too was looking for the answer to referencing cells in a closed workbook. Here is the link to the solution (correct formula) below. I have tried it on my current project (referencing a single cell and an array of cells) and it works well with no errors. I hope it helps you.
https://www.extendoffice.com/documents/excel/4226-excel-reference-unopened-file.html
In the formula, E:\Excel file\ is the full file path of the unopened workbook, test.xlsx is the name of the workbook, Sheet2 is the sheet name which contains the cell value you need to reference from, and A:A,2,1 means the cell A2 will be referenced in the closed workbook. You can change them based on your needs.
If you want to manually select a worksheet to reference, please use this formula
=INDEX('E:\Excel file\[test.xlsx]sheetname'!A:A,2,1)
After applying this formula, you will get a Select Sheet dialog box, please select a worksheet and then click the OK button. Then the certain cell value of this worksheet will be referenced immediately.
The problem is that a link to a closed file works with index( but not with index(indirect(
It seems to me that it is a programming issue of the index function.
I solved it with a if clause row
C2=sheetname
if(c2=Sheet1,index(sheet1....),if(C2="Sheet2",index(sheet2....
I did it over five sheets, it's a long formula, but does what I need.
Check INDEX Function:
=INDEX('C:\path\[file.xlsm]Sheet1'!A10:B20;1;1)
Thank you for the great question. I want to clarify and second the solution posted by Philipp. The solution does the following:
Updates data from a closed Excel file, and
Does so "dynamically" (though not exactly - you'll see)
In his answer above, Philipp said: "The problem is that a link to a closed file works with index( but not with index(indirect("
I believe this is still true. (I'm using Office 365 here in March of 2021. It would be so nice if Microsoft allowed INDIRECT and INDEX to play nicely together with closed files!)
I can confirm that Philipp's workaround indeed works, practically speaking. From the user's point of view, it feels like what Chris, the OP, wants to do.
Let's say you want the contents of a given cell to be drawn from Sheet1, Sheet2 or Sheet3, which are from a closed file myExcelFile.xlsm. You will choose which sheet by changing the contents of a particular cell (C13, as in the OP Chris's question). One way to do this is to make it a drop-down list (using Data > Data Validation > Allow [List]). The list will have the following names:
Sheet1
Sheet2
Sheet3
(This will generalize without the drop-down list. For example, you can just type "Sheet2" into C13, and the relevant data from the closed file will appear; if you then type "Sheet3" then the data from that sheet will appear instead. Or you can have a column with the sheet names, and the next column over [with the formula below, adjusted] for the output from the closed file.)
The cell that will contain the referenced data from the other, closed sheet (myExcelFile.xlsm) will have:
=IFS(
C13="Sheet1",'C:\data\[myExcelFile.xlsm]Sheet1'!$A$1,
C13="Sheet2",'C:\data\[myExcelFile.xlsm]Sheet2'!$A$1,
C13="Sheet3",'C:\data\[myExcelFile.xlsm]Sheet3'!$A$1
)
And that's it.
It'll throw up a #REF error the first time you do this with myExcelFile.xlsm closed, but you can go to Data > Queries & Connections > Edit Links > Update Values and your values from the closed file should appear. (Personally, I set up a macro with a button to do the updating, instead of hunting through the menus.) The magic is that when you do Update Values, the data from all of the sheets in the closed file get loaded into the current Excel file - so you don't have to update every time you switch the reference to a different sheet (Sheet2 to Sheet3, for example).
Andrew
In Excel 2016 at least, you can use INDIRECT with a full path reference; the entire reference (including sheet name) needs to be enclosed by ' characters.
So this should work for you:
= INDIRECT("'C:\data\[myExcelFile.xlsm]" & C13 & "'!$A$1")
Note the closing ' in the last string (ie '!$A$1 surrounded by "")
=INDIRECT("'C:\Data["&A8&"]SheetNAME'!$G9")
where A8 contains myExcelFile.xlsm
and G9 contains your source workbook precious data.
OK,
Here's a dinosaur method for you on Office 2010.
Write the full address you want using concatenate (the "&" method of combining text).
Do this for all the addresses you need. It should look like:
="="&"'\FULL NETWORK ADDRESS including [Spreadsheet Name]"&W3&"'!$w4"
The W3 is a dynamic reference to what sheet I am using, the W4 is the cell I want to get from the sheet.
Once you have this, start up a macro recording session. Copy the cell and paste it into another. I pasted it into a merged cell and it gave me the classic "Same size" error. But one thing it did was paste the resulting text from my concatenate (including that extra "=").
Copy over however many you did this for. Then, go into each pasted cell, select he text and just hit enter. It updates it to an active direct reference.
Once you have finished, put the cursor somewhere nice and stop the macro. Assign it to a button and you are done.
It is a bit of a PITA to do this the first time, but once you have done it, you have just made the square peg fit that daamned round hole.
This seems to work with closed file: add a pivot table (rows, tabular layout, no subtotals, no grand totals) of the source to the current workbook, then reference all you want from that pivot table, INDIRECT, LOOKUPs,...
If you know the number of sheet you want to reference you can use below function to find out the name. Than you can use it in INDIRECT funcion.
Public Function GETSHEETNAME(address As String, Optional SheetNumber As Integer = 1) As String
Set WS = GetObject(address).Worksheets
GETSHEETNAME = WS(SheetNumber).Name
End Function
This solution doesn't require referenced workbook to be open - Excel gonna open it by itself (but it's gonna be hidden).
I was disappointed so I made the following workaround:
I created my INDIRECT commands and stored them just outside the desired range. Of course I get errors when the source workbook is closed but they light up when it's open.
So I open the source workbook temporarily.
Then I created a macro that copies the INDIRECT formulas from outside the range and pastes them inside the range. All cells are filled in with the right values.
The macro then copy-pastes the values of the range to the range on top of themselves. This deletes the formulas but keeps their values.
Then I close the source workbook. My values stay intact where I want them and my INDIRECT formulas stay just outside the desired range in case I want to refresh them by repeating the procedure!
This workaround saves me the error of the indirect formulas when the source workbook is closed, and most importantly it saves a lot of time in recalculations!
Hope this works for you too!
I'm making multiple IF statements that are going to have the same layout. Instead of writing the reference sheet name I'd like to reference a cell for the sheet name.
Also in the interests of laziness I'd like to drag the formula so it changes locations it is looking at on the referenced sheet.
At the moment it looks like this.
=IF(sheet1!O2="","",sheet1!O2)
Simple enough.
However I want to use indirect and I can't write it without getting an error.
Last attempt was
=IF((indirect($B$3))!O2="","",(indirect($B$3))!O2)
where Sheet1 is in the cell B3
Doesn't work.
Any help on the correct syntax would be very appreciated.
You need to concatenate $B$3 and "!O2" to generate "Sheet1!O2" as a string for INDIRECT to work, as below:
=IF(indirect($B$3&"!O2")="","",indirect($B$3&"!O2")