How to use an absolute reference?

The final type of reference I will be covering is the absolute reference. This will be used about as frequently as the mixed reference I taught last tutorial. An absolute reference, as you may have been able to infer, is a reference in which neither the column nor the row is sliding. This is called an absolute because no matter where you drag the formula it will always reference the same cell



As you can see, I have used the same table from all the previous tutorials. In this chart though you can see that all of the values within the chart are exactly the same after I copy them into the other cells. This is because neither the column nor row is sliding and at all points they are referencing the same b3 and c2 cells that I entered in the initial equation.

This is especially valuable when calculating taxes or when you are referencing a rate for something because you will always reference the same tax percentage or interest rate no matter what number you are comparing it to.

That is all I have for you as far as references. Try it yourself. Just make yourself a table of values and then you can write a formula and put it inside and see what the values do as you change the type of reference. Mixed and absolute are much more common for real world applications, but it is fun to try and find interesting things numerically with the relative reference. make sure you dont end up with circular references. We'll learn about those soon