Excel: Errors Sorting Cells That Contain References

ID: Q40401

The information in this article applies to:

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Excel, when you sort a column of values that are the result of arithmetic operations based on relative references, you may receive #REF error values.

CAUSE

To correctly sort a range that includes cells with references, all references must be absolute references. Using relative references can result in errors because the references may become invalid when the cells are rearranged in the specified sort order.

For example, given these cell and sorting A1:C3 in ascending order with the sort key being cell A1 


A1: 3  B1: =A3     C1: =$A$3
A2: 2  B2: =A2     C2: =$A$2
A3: 1  B3: =A1     C3: =$A$1

the resulting formulas will be:

A1: 1  B1: =#REF!  C1: =$A$1
A2: 2  B2: =A2     C2: =$A$2
A3: 3  B3: =A5     C3: =$A$3


Note that cell B1 is now an invalid reference and that cell B3 has lost its reference to A3 and now refers to A5. The formulas in column C have been correctly sorted.

For more information, For additional information, please see the following article(s) in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q70096 : Using FORMULA.CONVERT() to Change Relative/Absolute References

Q48254 : Data Sort Not Sorting Correctly in Excel

Additional query words: data 


Keywords          : 
Version           : 2.x 3.x 4.x 5.00 5.00c 7.00
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        :

Last Reviewed: March 12, 1999