Really Really stupied questions

[Plasma]

I know this is simple for some, but for the life of me i cannot figur
out why we would use the $ symbol. for example:

=$B$2:$B$51


also, I've seen the : put at the end of forumlas, ie:

='Levy Jennings'!$B$2:$B$51:


what would that mean as well?

again, i know these are easy questions, but I've search Excel's hel
and I havent' been able to figure it out.

any help would be appriciated.

th

 

[Bryan Hessey]

When you formula-drag A1 to the right, it becomes B1, C1, D1 etc
Drag down becomes A2, A3, A4 etc.

The $ stops this increment and retains the stated positiom.
$A ratains the column, $1 retains the row, so the $A$1 reference
remains as a pointer to A1

--

 

[L. Howard Kittle]

Adding to Bryan's response, it's called Absolute Reference.

Type =A10 in a cell and before hitting enter, hit F4 four times slowly and
view the formula each time.

HTH
Regards,
Howard

 

[Plasma]

thank you.

 

[David McRitchie]

You might want to read more about the subject in HELP see
Absolute and Relative cell references
then take a look at Chip Pearson's page
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/relative.htm

Then you can see how the addresses change when you drag the
fill handle http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/fillhand.htm
Filling down by dragging the fill handle of will not change an absolute reference,
but insert a row above the reference cell will change an absolute reference.

If a cell address is within quotes it will not change, be either of those methods.

I have no idea what putting a colon at the end of range would do -- I've never
seen it, and can't get anything like that entered as a valid syntax. It might just
have have punctuation in a sentence explaining something or a typo..

 

[Eddie]

I just want mention a quick way to assign $ to a formula, which i found
very useful.
if you click on formula, like B2, and press F4, the $ sign will show
up. If you press different time, if you get a different number of $ in
your formula. So, one F4, would be $B$2, two F4, B$2, three F4, $B2