How to Use Indirect Address in Excel (4 Examples)

In this article, you will get to know some of the examples of indirect address in Excel. By using an indirect address, you will be able to refer to the address of the cell rather than to the cell itself. So, let’s get started with the main article.

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4 Examples of INDIRECT ADDRESS in Excel

Here, we have used the following table for demonstrating the examples of the indirect address in Excel.

For creating the article, we have used Microsoft Excel 365 version, you can use any other versions according to your convenience.

1. Using INDIRECT Function for Indirect Referencing

Here, we have two tables and we want to have the values of the sales of the first table in the second table in the Sales column. So, we can paste these values with indirect address referencing by using the INDIRECT function.

➤Select the output cell F5
➤Type the following formula

• ROW(C5)→ returns the row number of cell C5
  Output→ 5

• INDIRECT(“C”&ROW(C5)) becomes
  INDIRECT(“C5”)→ returns the value in cell C5
  Output→ $4,629.00

➤Press ENTER
➤Drag down the Fill Handle Tool

Result:
In this way, you will get the values of the sales in the Sales column of the second table by using indirect reference.

2. Adding up Values with Indirect Address Reference

Here, we will sum up the sales values by using indirect referencing.

➤Select the output cell D9
➤Type the following formula

• INDIRECT(“D5”)→ returns the value in the cell D5
  Output→ $4,629.00

• INDIRECT(“D6”)→ returns the value in the cell D6
  Output→ $3,257.00

• INDIRECT(“D7”)→ returns the value in the cell D7
  Output→ $2,091.00

• INDIRECT(“D8”)→ returns the value in the cell D8
  Output→ $2,125.00

• INDIRECT(“D5”)+INDIRECT(“D6”)+INDIRECT(“D7”)+INDIRECT(“D8”)→ becomes
  $4,629.00+$3,257.00+$2,091.00+$2,125.00
  Output→ $12,102.00

➤Press ENTER

Result:
After that, you will get the sum of sales in the D9 cell.

3. Indirect Address of Cells From Another Sheet

Here, we have three different sheets named January, February, and March and each of them contains the sales of the products.

Now, we will paste the sales values from these sheets in the following table in the corresponding column of these months by using indirect address reference.

➤Select the output cell C5
➤Type the following formula

• ROW(D5)→returns the row number of the cell D5
  Output→ 5

• COLUMN(D5)→returns the column number of the cell D5
  Output→ 4

• ADDRESS(ROW(D5),COLUMN(D5)) becomes
  ADDRESS(5,4)
  Output→$D$5

• INDIRECT(“January!”&ADDRESS(ROW(D5),COLUMN(D5))) becomes
  INDIRECT(“January!”&”$D$5”)→INDIRECT(“January!$D$5”)
  Output→$4,629.00

➤Press ENTER
➤Drag down the Fill Handle Tool

Then, you will get the sales record of January month from the January sheet in the January column.

Similarly, you can get the sales record for  February and March by using the following formulas

4. Using INDIRECT Function and ADDRESS Function for Indirect Referencing

Here, we want to have the values of the sales of the first table in the second table in the Sales column. So, we can paste these values with indirect address referencing by using the INDIRECT function and the ADDRESS function. Besides these, we will use the row numbers of the Row No. column.

➤Select the output cell G5
➤Type the following formula

• D5→ returns the value in the cell D5
  Output→ 5

• ADDRESS(D5,3) becomes
  ADDRESS(5,3))→ returns the cell address
  Output→ $C$5

• INDIRECT(ADDRESS(D5,3)) becomes
  INDIRECT(“$C$5”)
  Output→ $4,629.00

➤Press ENTER
➤Drag down the Fill Handle Tool

Result:
Then, you will get the values of the sales in the Sales column of the second table by using indirect reference.

Practice Section

For doing practice by yourself we have provided a Practice section like below in a sheet named Practice. Please do it by yourself for a better understanding of indirect address in Excel.

Conclusion

In this article, we tried to cover some of the examples of the indirect address in Excel. Hope you will find it useful. If you have any suggestions or questions, feel free to share them in the comment section.

Further Readings

• How to Use Excel INDIRECT Range (8 Easiest Ways)
• INDIRECT Function with Sheet Name in Excel (4 Criteria)