$ in functions

S

short.tkk22

Hello,

I am still new to excel and I am working on a project. I have been
looking all over the net to try and find out what the $ in a function
means. For example, =PPMT($E$6/12,$B$15,$E$8,-$B$6) and =IPMT($E
$6/12,$B$15,$E$8,-$B$6). Please someone help!!

Thanks,

Kayla
 
G

Gary''s Student

The dollar just "fixes" the reference when the expression is copied.

if in A1 you put:
=B1
and copy the formula down you will see:
=B2
=B3
=B4
=B5
=B6
=B7
=B8
=B9
=B10
=B11
=B12
=B13
=B14
=B15


if you had entered
=B$1 and copied down you will see:
=B$1
=B$1
=B$1
=B$1
=B$1
=B$1
=B$1
=B$1
=B$1
=B$1
=B$1
=B$1
=B$1
=B$1
 
T

Toppers

Cell addresses in Excel can be relative or absolute: the $ indicates which
part - row, column or both is absolute - i.e doesn't change when you copy or
drag formulae down a column/across a row.

In your examples the $E$6 is "fixed" whereas for example $E6 (a mixed
reference) means the column E is fixed but the row could change if the
formulae were copied to another cell.

E6 is relative so copying would change both the relative column and row.

Look up "Cell Addresses" in Excel HELP.

HTH
 
P

Pete_UK

The $ symbol in front of a cell reference means that the reference
will not change when the formula is copied. For example, suppose you
have a value in A1 and this formula in B1:

=A1 * 1.175

which will increase the value in A1 by 17.5% (VAT rate in the UK). If
you have other values going down column A, you might like this formula
to be copied down, in which case you would want the formula to change
automatically to A2*1.175, A3*1.175, A4*1.175 etc as you go down the
column, and this is what will happen.

However, suppose you put the value 1.175 in cell D1 - then another way
of writing the formula in B1 would be:

=A1 * D$1

When this is copied down the formula becomes A2*D$1, A3*D$1, A4*D$1
etc, so that it always refers to the (single) cell which contains
1.175.

You may have the dollar symbol in front of the column reference, which
will fix it when the formula is copied across the sheet, and, as in
your examples, you can have the symbol in front of both the column and
the row reference, so that the formula can be copied anywhere without
it changing. This is referred to as Absolute referencing, rather than
Relative.

Hope this helps.

Pete
 
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