You would normally use INDIRECT to do this. However, it does not work
with closed files.

There is a free add-in, morefunc, which contains the function
INDIRECT.EXT - this is meant to work with closed files, so perhaps you
can download that and give it a try.

Hope this helps.

Pete

On Aug 5, 10:33*pm, dh13134 wrote:
scenario:
file ABC.xls has the number 5 in A1 (a closed file)
file XYZ.xls has the number 10 in A1 (a closed file)

file choose.xls (an open file) has EITHER ABC or XYZ in cell A1 and ~some
formula in A2

i need a formula for cell A2 (choose.xls) that will display EITHER 5 or 10
in A2, depending on what is in cell A1 (EITHER ABC or XYZ)??

thanks

--
dh13134