Lesson 07 · 8 min

Locking a cell with $

Absolute references

The market takes a 10% fee from every sale. The rate lives in one cell (L1), so Maya can change it next season in one place.

Video coming soon

Read the short explanation and practise below: it takes about 8 minutes.

When you fill a formula down, every reference moves. Usually that's great. But the fee rate sits in one cell, L1, and should never move.

Put a $ in front of the column letter and the row number to lock it: $L$1. Now it stays L1 no matter where you copy the formula.

Mixed locks exist too: $L1 locks only the column, L$1 only the row. You'll meet those in the Green Belt.

=G2*$L$1

In Google Sheets and Excel, press F4 (Fn+F4 on many laptops) while the cursor is on a reference to add the $ signs.

LEO · YOUR TUTOR

Want another one? I've got more like this.