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#1
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School assignment: Excel worksheets.
I am attending a college-level computer applications course, and in my Excel
training, I have to format a pre-existing Excel sheet that has been made for me. I've been having some problems, especially with this: "In cell M4, type the word "Allowance". In cell M5, type "0.32" (the amount paid per mile). In cell M8, write a Formula that multiplies the mileage in cell L8 by the mileage allowance in cell M5. (Remember to use an Absolute Reference to cell M5 and a relative reference to L8.) Copy the formula to cells M9:M11." I tried using the =PRODUCT(L8:$M5) formula, but for some reason, it always changes L8 to L5 and M5 to M8. Why is this? |
#2
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You have to put the dollar sign in front of the row number as well if it is
the row number you don't want to change, i.e.: =PRODUCT($L$8:$M$5) This formula will always reference L8 and M5 no matter which cell you paste this formula into. -- Regards, db "Mike U." wrote: I am attending a college-level computer applications course, and in my Excel training, I have to format a pre-existing Excel sheet that has been made for me. I've been having some problems, especially with this: "In cell M4, type the word "Allowance". In cell M5, type "0.32" (the amount paid per mile). In cell M8, write a Formula that multiplies the mileage in cell L8 by the mileage allowance in cell M5. (Remember to use an Absolute Reference to cell M5 and a relative reference to L8.) Copy the formula to cells M9:M11." I tried using the =PRODUCT(L8:$M5) formula, but for some reason, it always changes L8 to L5 and M5 to M8. Why is this? |
#3
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OK, Mike, did you read the Help file about the PRODUCT() function? It is
going to multiply all the cells in the range by one another. So you are telling Excel to perform =L5*M5*L6*M6*L7*M7*L8*M8 and that really is not what you were asked to do. Matter of fact, you should have gotten a circular reference error, since you were to put this formula in cell M8. You need something like =m5*l8 It's something like that because I'll leave it to you to figure out the relative and absolute addesses to use The reason that Excel changed the address range for you is that it seems to like the address for the top left corner of the range first, followed by the address for the bottom right corner. "Mike U." wrote: I am attending a college-level computer applications course, and in my Excel training, I have to format a pre-existing Excel sheet that has been made for me. I've been having some problems, especially with this: "In cell M4, type the word "Allowance". In cell M5, type "0.32" (the amount paid per mile). In cell M8, write a Formula that multiplies the mileage in cell L8 by the mileage allowance in cell M5. (Remember to use an Absolute Reference to cell M5 and a relative reference to L8.) Copy the formula to cells M9:M11." I tried using the =PRODUCT(L8:$M5) formula, but for some reason, it always changes L8 to L5 and M5 to M8. Why is this? |
#4
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db wrote...
You have to put the dollar sign in front of the row number as well if it is the row number you don't want to change, i.e.: =PRODUCT($L$8:$M$5) This formula will always reference L8 and M5 no matter which cell you paste this formula into. .... You either don't read OP carefully or you don't have a clue how to answer this question. Did you miss this sentence in the OP? "(Remember to use an Absolute Reference to cell M5 and a relative reference to L8.)" How does your formula leave L8 a relative reference? Do you have a clue what relative and absolute references are? There's no evidence in your responses that you do. Both the OP's formula and your formula are WRONG. PRODUCT(L8:M5) will automatically be changed to PRODUCT(L5:M8) on entry, and that's the product of all cells in the range L5:M8, so cells L5, L6, L7, L8, M5, M6, M7 and M8. What the OP needs is the product of ONLY cells M5 and L8. It'd be valid to use PRODUCT with both cells as *SEPARATE* arguments, so a comma between them rather than a colon. However, better still would be using the multiplication operator, *, rather than the PRODUCT function. |
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