Concepts


What is a worksheet cell?

The figure above shows a picture of a spreadsheet. As you can see from the picture, a spreadsheet is made up of a rectangular array of cells. A cell is an area of the spreadsheet defined by the intersection of a row and column. When you enter data into a spreadsheet you enter the data into a cell. Each cell contains one data item. That data item can be a text string, number, or formula. You can change the width of a column and the height of a row, but all cells in the same row (column) must have the same the same height (width). One consequence of this restriction is that it is very easy to reference a cell or data item in a spreadsheet.

How do you reference worksheet cells?

Spreadsheet cells are referenced by a column letter and row number. For example, B5 is a reference to the cell at the intersection of column B and row 5. (Cell B5 in the figure above contains a formula.) B5 is an example of a single cell reference. Later you will learn about cell range references, absolute references, and relative references. You will also learn how cell references are used within formulas to compute new values from existing values.

Copyright 1996 by the Curators of the University of Missouri