That is a rather confusing question, because excel rows are labeled with
numbers. So your example would be B2 not YB. If you wanted to do a
calculation using the value of cell B2 as a variable, then it would be like
this:

=B2+8-B2*2

The result would be 7. The equal sign tells excel that you are using a
formula, and outputs a result instead of what you type.

"Tony" wrote:

In a spreadsheet as exampled below how can I get Excel to look up a
particular reference and use that in a calculation?

e.g.
A B C
X 4 6 7
Y 2 3 6
Z 7 4 9

So if I had entered in one cell YB it would use the value at their
intersection (3 in this case) in further calculations?

Hope someone can help. Thanks.

Tony
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Tony