Subscribe in a readerWorking with Circular references in Excel
Introduction
If you've come to this page, chances are you've experienced the "Circular reference warning" popping up when you opened an Excel file or entered a formula. Excel detects a circular reference when a chain of calculations visits the same cell more than once. Many users get (very) confused by this message and have no idea what it is about. I'll try to demystify that message here!
You may also find an excerpt of parts of the article on the Microsoft Office blog
The next couple of pages discuss:
Comments
Showing last 8 comments of 18 in total (Show All Comments):Comment by: Jan Karel Pieterse (10/19/2013 4:19:48 PM)Hi Gene,
This can be done using a deliberate circular reference and iteration set to 1, but it will cause problems if you somehow cause an extra calculation of Excel.
I would advise to enter each transaction on a new row and have a simple sum function totalling them.
Comment by: Brian (12/4/2013 4:14:37 PM)Hello JKP,
I am using circular references in an excel based stock trading platform. Generally they are set too lock in the last trade price from a stream when a buy or sell order is placed. I want to do some calculations in another cell using the locked in number from the circular reference. When I set the formulas the formula builder usually shows the correct result but the cell where the result goes displays 0 instead of the calculation result.
Any thoughts are appreciated.
Brian
Comment by: Jan Karel Pieterse (12/4/2013 4:17:13 PM)Hi Brian,
What happens if you hit F9, does it then update to the proper value?
Perhaps the number of iterations is incorrect?
Comment by: Brian (12/5/2013 2:28:05 AM)Hello Jan,
Hitting the F9 key does not seem to have any affect. The iterations are set to 1 as it is a large spreadsheet and once a value is locked in it needs to stay until the next day. The circular references are the result of if/then formulas.
Thanks,
Brian
Comment by: Jan Karel Pieterse (12/5/2013 7:49:10 AM)Hi Brian,
OK. In that case I'm afraid I cannot really help without having your workbook.
Comment by: richie (1/21/2014 4:14:09 AM)anyone help me,always shown #N/A
=VLOOKUP(B8,CHOOSE(VLOOKUP(A8,Sheet3!F2:G36,2,FALSE),Sheet3!B2:C4,Sheet3!B6:C8,Sheet3!B10:C12,Sheet3!B14:C16,Sheet3!B18:C20,Sheet3!B22:C24,Sheet3!B26:C28,Sheet3!B30:C32,Sheet3!B34:C36,Sheet3!B38:C40,Sheet3!B42:C44,Sheet3!B46:C48,Sheet3!B50:C52,Sheet3!B54:C56,Sheet3!B58:C60,Sheet3!B62:C64,Sheet3!B66:C68,Sheet3!B70:C72,Sheet3!B74:C76,Sheet3!B78:C80,Sheet3!B82:C84,Sheet3!B86:C88,Sheet3!B90:C92,Sheet3!B94:C96,Sheet3!B98:C100,Sheet3!B112:C114,Sheet3!B116:C118),2,FALSE)
Comment by: Jan Karel Pieterse (1/21/2014 6:13:07 AM)Hi Richie,
What is wrong with a simple:
=VLOOKUP(B8,Sheet3!B2:C118,2,FALSE)
I suspect the structure of your worksheet is making it hard to find what you need for your calculation...
Comment by: richie (2/8/2014 7:44:13 AM)Jan Karel Pieterse
hope you don't mind, can you give me your email add!,then i'll send you my format...
=)
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