Excel Formulas are Algebra, part 2

If you are already familiar with Excel formulas, you don't need to bother with this post or its companions of similar title.

What happens to the cell names (column/row names) when you copy a formula? Excel does a common-sense thing by making the references "relative". If you have a formula that refers to cell E2, and you copy that formula to the next cell below, the new copy refers to cell E3. Thus, the relative position of the formula and the cell(s) to which it refers is retained.


If the formula shown here is copied to many cells down column F, you'll get a series of formulas like this:

=E2*1.04 [the original formula]
=E3*1.04
=E4*1.04
=E5*1.04

and so forth. Sometimes more comples formulas require a cell reference that doesn't get changed in this way in a copy. We'll cover those later on, in a section on "Absolute references".