$A$1 is an absolute reference. When you copy the formula to another column,
it stays the same.
A$1 is an absolute row reference. The column will change when you copy it.
eg if you copy it from column C to E the A will change to C.

HTH

--
Ian
--
"nick" wrote in message
...
i am using the following formula to populate certain fields....

=IF(ISERROR(INDEX($A$1:$B$10,SMALL(IF($A$1:$A$10=$ A$10,ROW($A$1:$A$10)),ROW(1:1)),2)),"",INDEX($A$1: $B$10,SMALL(IF($A$1:$A$10=$A$10,ROW($A$1:$A$10)),R OW(1:1)),2))

i have 10 columns in workbook 1 and i am tryin to populate all the data
from
10 columns of workbook 1 in to workbook 2. but the prob is if i use the
above
formula, i have to modify it in all the columns of workbook 2 to get the
data
from workbook 1. what makes my job easier is if i cld use the above
function
or any other to populate all the 10 columns of workbook1 in 10 different
columns of workbook 2 without having to use the formula 10 different times
and modifying it each time. its like writing the function in one cell and
all
the 10 cells get populated by itself in workbook 2 with the data from
workbook 1. I used the above function as there are dupluicates in the data
and vlookup dont work in that case.

Any help wld be appreciated.