Microsoft Office

Introducing Formulas and Functions 11
Using Advanced Naming Techniques
Using range names can make your formulas easier to understand, easier to modify, and even help prevent
errors. It’s much easier to deal with a meaningful name such as AnnualSales than with a range reference
such as AB12:AB68.
CROSS-REF
See Chapter 5 for basic information regarding working with names.
Excel offers a number of advanced techniques that make using names even more useful. I discuss these
techniques in the sections that follow.
Using names for constants
Many Excel users don’t realize that you can give a name to an item that doesn’t appear in a cell. For example,
if formulas in your worksheet use a sales-tax rate, you would probably insert the tax-rate value into a
cell and use this cell reference in your formulas. To make things easier, you would probably also name this
cell something similar to SalesTax.
Here’s how to provide a name for a value that doesn’t appear in a cell:
1. Choose Formulas ➪ Defined Names ➪ Define Name. Excel displays the New Name dialog
box.
2. Enter the name (in this case, SalesTax) into the field labeled Name.
3. Select a scope in which the name will be valid (either the entire workbook or a specific
worksheet).
4. Click the Refers To box, delete its contents, and replace the old contents with a value (such
as .075).
5. Use the Comment box to provide a comment about the name (optional).
6. Click OK to close the New Name dialog box and create the name.
You just created a name that refers to a constant rather than a cell or range. Now if you type =SalesTax into
a cell that’s within the scope of the name, this simple formula returns 0.075 — the constant that you
defined. You also can use this constant in a formula, such as =A1*SalesTax.
TIP
A constant also can be text. For example, you can define a constant for your company’s name.
Named constants don’t appear in the Name box or in the Go To dialog box. This makes sense
because these constants don’t reside anywhere tangible. They do appear in the drop-down list
that’s displayed when you enter a formula — which is handy because you use these names in formulas.
NOTE
Using names for formulas
Just as you can create a named constant, you can also create named formulas. As with named constants,
named formulas don’t appear in the worksheet.
You create named formulas the same way you create named constants — by using the New Name dialog
box. For example, you might create a named formula that calculates the monthly interest rate from an
annual rate; Figure 11.16 shows an example. In this case, the name MonthlyRate refers to the following
formula:
=Sheet1!$B$1/12
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