Return values from the row above to the current row

excel excel-formula
Bliznak picture Bliznak · Aug 23, 2010 · Viewed 149.6k times · Source

I am trying to do simple thing: I just need to set some cells to values that are on the previous rows. I have tried =A(Row()-1) but it does not work.

Answer

Ben McCormack picture Ben McCormack · Aug 23, 2010

To solve this problem in Excel, usually I would just type in the literal row number of the cell above, e.g., if I'm typing in Cell A7, I would use the formula =A6. Then if I copied that formula to other cells, they would also use the row of the previous cell.

Another option is to use Indirect(), which resolves the literal statement inside to be a formula. You could use something like:

=INDIRECT("A" & ROW() - 1)

The above formula will resolve to the value of the cell in column A and the row that is one less than that of the cell which contains the formula.

Related questions

Shortcut to Apply a Formula to an Entire Column in Excel

If I select a cell containing a formula, I know I can drag the little box in the right-hand corner downwards to apply the formula to more cells of the column. Unfortunately, I need to do this for 300,000 rows! Is …

Read More
Remove leading or trailing spaces in an entire column of data

How do I remove leading or trailing spaces of all cells in an entire column? The worksheet's conventional Find and Replace (aka Ctrl+H) dialog is not solving the problem.

Read More
Simple Pivot Table to Count Unique Values

This seems like a simple Pivot Table to learn with. I would like to do a count of unique values for a particular value I'm grouping on. For instance, I have this: ABC 123 ABC 123 ABC 123 DEF 456 DEF 567 DEF 456 DEF 456 What …

Read More