The purpose of the Indirect function in Excel

Hi Mihaela

Thanks for getting in touch.

On first impressions the INDIRECT function doesn't seem that useful. However when combined with other functions and used in the context of a much larger formula, it starts to get much more versatile.

INDIRECT looks at a cell, and then goes to the cell reference *inside* the cell. e.g.

If cell A2 contains the text "B2", and cell B2 contains 1.333, this formula:

=INDIRECT($A$2)

will return the result "1.333". As I said, out of context it doesn't seem that useful. However it has some useful uses depending how your worksheet is setup. For example, I've had a sheet with a list of cell references on a different worksheet, and could use the INDIRECT function to pull the data from those other sheets.

There are other ways to achieve the same result, but as with many things in Excel it's "horses for courses".

There's an excellent article on this at Pearson Consulting, with some detailed examples:

http://www.cpearson.com/excel/indirect.htm

If you're interested in learning more about Excel's formulas and functions, have a look at our range of Excel courses:

https://www.stl-training.co.uk/excel-training-london.php

I hope that helps.

Kind regards

Gary Fenn
Microsoft Office Specialist Trainer

Tel: 0207 987 3777
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