Excel best practice

PTP86

Board Regular
Joined
Nov 7, 2009
Messages
86
Q1
---
Pretend in J3 you've got the formula =VLookup(A3, NamedRange,4,FALSE) and you have that formula all the way down column J
Is there a right/wrong in whether you choose to write it as =VLookup(A3, NamedRange,4,FALSE) or =VLookup($A3, NamedRange,4,FALSE)

I know that the $ makes no difference to the result initially because of how the formula isn't getting copied across, just down.
But I was wondering whether there is any reason why an "expert" would still put a $ in there?



Q2
---
Pretend you've got a large spreadsheet with potentially lots of large tables, lots of lookups/countifs/sumifs.
Pretend the answer to the formula you've got in Column J won't change unless the answer of the formula in Column B has changed
Is it any more efficient to write J3 = If(B3=B2,J2,VLookup(A3,NamedRange,4,FALSE)
instead of J3 = VLookup(A3,NamedRange,4,FALSE)

i.e. Does it save Excel from thinking it needs to do another VLookup and so speed it up?


Thanks
 
Last edited:

Excel Facts

Who is Mr Spreadsheet?
Author John Walkenbach was Mr Spreadsheet until his retirement in June 2019.
Q1 Not really.
Q2 Yes. It's much more efficient to avoid doing a lookup if you don't need it.
 
Upvote 0

Forum statistics

Threads
1,223,228
Messages
6,170,871
Members
452,363
Latest member
merico17

We've detected that you are using an adblocker.

We have a great community of people providing Excel help here, but the hosting costs are enormous. You can help keep this site running by allowing ads on MrExcel.com.
Allow Ads at MrExcel

Which adblocker are you using?

Disable AdBlock

Follow these easy steps to disable AdBlock

1)Click on the icon in the browser’s toolbar.
2)Click on the icon in the browser’s toolbar.
2)Click on the "Pause on this site" option.
Go back

Disable AdBlock Plus

Follow these easy steps to disable AdBlock Plus

1)Click on the icon in the browser’s toolbar.
2)Click on the toggle to disable it for "mrexcel.com".
Go back

Disable uBlock Origin

Follow these easy steps to disable uBlock Origin

1)Click on the icon in the browser’s toolbar.
2)Click on the "Power" button.
3)Click on the "Refresh" button.
Go back

Disable uBlock

Follow these easy steps to disable uBlock

1)Click on the icon in the browser’s toolbar.
2)Click on the "Power" button.
3)Click on the "Refresh" button.
Go back
Back
Top