MS-Excel / General Formatting

Address Data by Name

Although cell numbers are at the foundation of everything Excel does, it's much easier to remember names, such as Item Number and Quantity, than it is to remember cell numbers, such as A1:A100. Excel makes this easy.

Excel uses the same technique for defining named cells and named ranges: the Name box at the left end of the Formula bar. To name a cell, select it, type the name you want into the Name box and press Enter. To name a range of cells, select the range, type the name you want for that range in the Name box, and press Enter.

The drop-down list to the right of the Name box enables you to find your named ranges and cells again. If you happen to select a range precisely, its name will appear in the Name box instead of the usual cell references.

In formulas, you can use these names in place of cell identifiers or ranges. If you name cell E4 "date," for instance, you could write =date instead of =E4. Similarly, if you create a range called "quantity" in A3:A10 and want a total of the values in it, your formula could say =SUM(quantity) rather than =SUM(A3:A10).

[Previous Tutorial] [Contents]

In this tutorial:

  1. Sort by More Than Three Columns
  2. Random Sorting
  3. Manipulate Data with the Advanced Filter
  4. Add More Levels of Undo to Excel for Windows
  5. Create Custom Lists
  6. Enable Grouping and Outlining on a Protected Worksheet
  7. Prevent Blanks/Missing Fields in a Table
  8. Provide Decreasing Data Validation Lists
  9. Add a Custom List to the Fill Handle
  10. Address Data by Name