In Excel, what do the dollar signs mean in $A$1

In Excel, what do the dollar signs mean in $A$

It means that the column and row references are locked.

for example, if you typed =SUM(A1,A2) in cell A3, cell A3 would contain the sum of values in A1 and A2. If you then copied cell A3 and pasted into cell B3, excel would convert the formula to =SUM(B1,B2).

If instead you typed =SUM($A$1,$A$2), when you pasted the formula the cell refences would remain the same as they had been locked.

You can also lock either column or row.

Also, highlighting the a cell reference in the formula bar and hitting F4 will lock the cell refernce for you so you don't have to type the dollar signs. Hitting F4 repeatedly will toggle through the locking choices

It makes that part of the cell reference absolute, so that when you copy a
formula to another cell, that part of the cell doesn't change. For example

cell B1: = SUM(A1:A10)

copy that to D1 and the resultant formula changes to =SUM(C1:C10)

cell B1: =SUM($A$1:$A$10)

copy that to D1 and the resultant formula changes to =SUM($A$1:$A$10)

cell B1: =SUM($A1:$A10)

copy that to D4 and the resultant formula changes to =SUM($A4:$A13)

--
HTH

Bob Phillips

(remove nothere from email address if mailing direct)

"pso827" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In Excel, what do the dollar signs mean in $A$