Re: [libreoffice-users] Referencing data in a row based on content of cell value in column A?

At 11:17 07/06/2013 -0400, Charles Marcus wrote:
> I have a workbook with multiple sheets, some of which reference data 
> from other sheets in the workbook.  I have one 'Main' sheet, that 
> lists our Sales Reps, and has each ones monthly numbers, by column, ie:
>
> 1  Name  Jan  Feb  ...  Dec  YTD
> 2  Rep1  ###  ###  ###  ###  ###
> 3  Rep2  ###  ###  ###  ###  ###
>
> I have other sheets that have these Reps broken down by Team, and 
> pulling each Reps numbers from the Main sheet.  The problem is, I 
> need to be able to sort the Main Sheet by the Sum column (to show 
> the top Sales Rep), but when I do that, since the references on the 
> Team sheets still reference the same Col/Row, the numbers are now 
> wrong.  Googling reveals this is apparently by design, as the Rows 
> themselves aren't changing.

One workaround for this would be to use VLOOKUP() to extract the 
information from your Main sheet to the others instead of addressing 
cells directly.  The names - Rep1 and so on - would naturally appear 
on your later sheets, and the cell in which they appear should be the 
first parameter of your VLOOKUP() there. The second parameter would 
be the array of values on the Main sheet, the third indicate 
(numerically) which column of data (month etc.) you wish to retrieve, 
and the fourth FALSE or zero, to indicate that the key "Name" column 
in the array is not necessarily sorted.  The values would now be 
found irrespective of the ordering within your source array on the Main sheet.

> So, I was think if I could reference it instead of by Row#, by the 
> content of A# - ie, instead of: 'Main.A2' for the Jan numbers for 
> Rep1, something like: 'Main.A"Rep1"'.  Is this possible?

That's effectively what VLOOKUP() does, of course.

There is a way of doing something like this, using the INDIRECT() 
function: =INDIRECT("Main.A"&<expression>) will reference a cell in 
column C on sheet Main according to the numeric value of <expression> 
(which could be just a cell reference, of course).  But I suspect 
that this is of little use here, as extracting the relevant number to 
use is probably the same as the original problem.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker


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