Welcome to the Treehouse Community
Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.
Looking to learn something new?
Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.
Start your free trial
nicolaspeterson
8,569 PointsI didn't quite get the mixed reference part...
Can someone clarify what exactly he achieved by mixing the two types of cell references, and why that may be useful in a professional setting? TIA
1 Answer
Jason Larson
8,359 PointsHe didn't achieve much by mixing the references, as he was really just demonstrating that it could be done. Personally, I use mixed references mostly in cases where I'm copying a formula across multiple columns and I want part of the formula to always reference the same column. For example, let's say I'm using a vlookup (which is one thing that I use a LOT in Excel) for a values in columns L:O on a table that has 4 columns (S:V), and I want the value from the last column to be returned in columns A:D. In cell A1 I would write =vlookup(L1, $S:$V, 4, false). I could then copy that formula into cells B1, C1, and D1 and I get back all the correct values. When the formula is copied to the other columns, the L1 value gets updated to M1, N1, and O1, but the S:V columns stay the same. Hopefully this makes sense, as you may or may not be familiar with vlookup. If you're not, I suggest you google it and figure out how it works, as it is one of the must useful functions in Excel (particularly if you're not an accountant, and you use Excel for comparing data).