How to find and locate circular reference in Excel quickly?
When you apply a formula in a cell, says Cell C1, and the formula refers back to its own cell directly or indirectly, says =Sum (A1:C1), circular reference happens.
When you reopen this workbook with circular reference again, it pops up a circular reference error message, which warns formulas contains a circular reference and may not calculate correctly. See the following screenshot:
It tells what is the problem, however, it does not say where the error stays in. If you click the OK button, the warning error message will be closed, but it will pop up next time when you reopen the workbook; if you click the Help button, it will bring you to the Help document.
Actually, you can find out and locate the cell with circular reference in Excel with following steps:
Step 1: Go to the Formula Auditing group under the Formula tab.
Step 2: Click the Arrow button besides the Error Checking button.
Step 3: Move mouse over the Circular References item in the drop down list, and it shows the cells with circular references. See the following screenshot:
Step 4: Click the cell address listed besides the Circular References, it selects the cell with circular reference at once.
Add Text (add character/word to a specific location of each cell in a range.) |
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Comments
It is really stupid of Microsoft to only give the warning in the pop up message and not inform on how to find the circ. reference. I had a big excel file and it was taking several minutes to open each time because of this circ. reference problem.
Thanks a lot !!
Thanks =)
SAVED ME FROM AN ERROR
thanks a lot to all.
Thanks for making this so easy.
Saved me :)
However, I have checked each sheet within the workbook and no sheet reports a circular reference. I have even executed the Formula Auditing=>Error Checking individually on each sheet and no sheet reports a circular reference. It's only reported when I open the workbook. Any ideas on how to find out what excel is complaining about on open?
Same here - circular ref warnings started appearing when ever there is a recalculation, just after I added this fab example in a large range on my work sheet.
Great expression - thanks
I have the same - circular reference warning on recalc since I copied this expression to a range in my worksheet.
Thank you.