Relative, Absolute and Mixed References in Excel

There are different ways a cell can be referenced or called in Excel.

Relative referencing is the most common type of referencing a cell in which cell is called by row and column level (example A1 means column A and Row 1). When a formula with relative referencing is copied, reference of cell will have relative change. For example, if cell C1 has formula =SUM(A1,B1) and the formula is copied to Cell C2, it will be changed to =SUM(A2,B2).

Absolute Referencing will have absolute reference to the cell. If you place $ sign in front of cell reference, cell reference will not be changed during copy. For example, if cell C1 has formula =SUM($A$1,$B$1) and the formula is copied to Cell C2, it will remain =SUM($A$1,$B$1).

Mixed referencing is the mix of relative and absolute referencing. Example is =SUM(A$1,B$1) or =SUM($A1,$B1) or any other combination of relative and absolute referencing.

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One Comment

  1. Cosmas Lydia
    Posted November 25, 2010 at 7:23 am | Permalink

    If you are asked to illustrate the difference between
    (i) Relative, Absolute and mixed referencing
    (ii) Auto filter and conditional formatting
    How will one put it?

    Thank you.

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