Excel: Create summary worksheet using certain cells from other worksheets - excel

Question

I have a whole bunch of tabs which share a standard structure. In cells A1, B1, C1 of each tab, I have, respectively, an ID number, a first Name and a surname. There is a whole bunch of other information on each tab that is not relevant to the question.
I want to create a summary tab, with a 3-column table carrying only the ID number, first name and surname from each of the other tabs. Again, these are always in cells A1, B1, C1. I also want the id number in the summary table to hyperlink to the appropriate tab.
Is there any way to semi-automate this using cell references? Like how, in a single table, if you enter a number in a cell and drag downwards, the number will be incremented in each consecutive cell in the column. Is there any way to achieve a similar effect, but with the cell reference remaining constant (always cell A1, A2, A3) and the TAB reference being incremented? In short, is there any way to tie a particular row to a separate tab (in a way that will take care of the hyperlinking, also)? Or do I have to enter the reference manually for each table?
Not that the tabs are not labelled Sheet 1, Sheet 2 etc. They will be labelled with the name of the person whose information they hold.

Answer 1

[EDIT: Added ASAP option]
ASAP utilities takes the hard work out of this
Download ASAP utilities , http://www.asap-utilities.com/
Run the utility as per screenshot 1 below
Chose whether you want a live link summary, or hardcoded report
(screenshot 2)
ASAP settings
Select your A1:C1 accross sheets
Output
[Initial Post]
You can do this without a continuous VBA sub
Step 1
Define a range name to contain all the sheet names, (from this great example from David Hager)
In this example I used
AllSheets
with a reference of
=RIGHT(GET.WORKBOOK(1),LEN(GET.WORKBOOK(1))-FIND("]",GET.WORKBOOK(1)))
Step 2
Use an INDEX formula to pull out each unique sheet on your summary sheet
=IF(ROW()<=COUNTA(AllSheets),INDEX(AllSheets,ROW()),"")& LEFT(RAND(),0)
Assuming your summary sheet is at the far left (ie sheet 1) then
ROW() will be 2 in A2, so this will pull the second sheet from AllSheets
ROW() will be 3 in A3, so this will pull the third sheet from AllSheets etc
The LEFT(RAND(),0) ensures that the sheet name list updates as soon as any sheet name is changed (and VBA solution would need to monitor the sheet names for changes)
Step 3
Use INDIRECT to pull out A1, B1 and C1 for each sheet
=IF($A2<>"",INDIRECT("'"&$A2&"'!"&B$1),"")
Copy this B2 formula to the right and down as far as you expect potental sheet names
Note that this formula handles the ' that occur for sheet names with spaces etc

Answer 2

You could probably use the INDIRECT function.
For example, to get the value of cell A1 on sheet John, you can call:
=INDIRECT("John!A1")
So in your case you could put "John" in cell A1 of your summary tab, "A1" in cell B1 of the summary tab and in cell C1, put the following formula:
=INDIRECT("'"A1&"'!"&B1)

Answer 3

There is no function built into excel that will give you all the sheet names in the workbook. For this you would have to turn to VBA, the scripting facility built into Excel. If you are on Office 2007 or above, this would require you to store your workbook in a special format. Also, to execute the macro, the user has to specifically allow macro execution. The following macro will allow you to print all sheet names in the first column. An important point to note is that this code would have to be executed in the code window of the summary sheet.
Sub SheetNames()
For i = 1 To Sheets.Count
Cells(i, 1) = Sheets(i).Name
Next i
End Sub
Once you have the names of the sheet, you can dynamically link to the cells in the sheets by using the following formula:
=INDIRECT(ADDRESS(1, 1, 1, 1, A1))
=INDIRECT(ADDRESS(1, 2, 1, 1, A1))
=INDIRECT(ADDRESS(1, 3, 1, 1, A1))
The INDIRECT formula takes an address. The ADDRESS formula works as follows ADDRESS(Row_num, Column_num, Abs_num, A1, Sheet_text). Excel help will be able to answer any questions.
You could setup the formula and run the macro only when there are a lot of new sheets. The workbook can then be stored without the macro. Just keep the macro in a text file somewhere in case you need it again.

Answer 4

Here's a solution using a VBA UDF to get the sheet names. It includes a Hyperlink as requested.
The call to the UDF is placed in an out of the way column. I've used H for this example
Place these functions in cells A1, B1, C1, H1
A1: =IF(H1<>"",HYPERLINK(SUBSTITUTE(H1,"]","]'")&"'!A1",INDIRECT("'"&$H1&"'!R1C[0]",FALSE)),"")
B1 and C1: =IF($H1<>"",INDIRECT("'"&$H1&"'!R1C"&COLUMN(),FALSE),"")
H1: =SheetByIndex()
Put this in a VBA module
Function SheetByIndex() As Variant
Application.Volatile
Dim r As Range
Dim shIdx As Long
Dim ThisShIndex As Long
Dim sh As Worksheet
Dim wb As Workbook
Set r = Application.Caller
ThisShIndex = r.Worksheet.Index
shIdx = r.Row
If shIdx >= ThisShIndex Then
shIdx = shIdx + 1
End If
Set wb = r.Worksheet.Parent
On Error Resume Next
Set sh = wb.Worksheets(shIdx)
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
SheetByIndex = ""
Else
SheetByIndex = "[" & wb.Name & "]" & sh.Name
End If
End Function
Copy formulas in A, B, C, H down as far as required

Answer 5

My slightly differnt approach, based on the code published here (there's a sample sheet there, too, for testing):
Option Explicit
Sub CreateHyperlinkedSheetList()
'Author: Jerry Beaucaire
'Date: 1/3/2011
Dim ws As Worksheet, NR As Long
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
With ActiveSheet
NR = .Range("A" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row + 1
For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
If ws.Name <> .Name Then
.Range("A" & NR).Value = ws.Range("A1").Value
.Hyperlinks.Add Anchor:=.Range("A" & NR), Address:="", SubAddress:= _
"'" & ws.Name & "'!A1", TextToDisplay:=ws.Name
.Range("B" & NR).Value = ws.Range("B1").Value
.Range("C" & NR).Value = ws.Range("C1").Value
NR = NR + 1
End If
Next ws
End With
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub