How to extract cell reference from formulas in Excel?
Supposing you have some long formulas, and now, you want to extract all cell references from the formulas as following screenshot shown. How could you extract the cell references from formulas as quickly as you can?
Extract cell references from formulas with User Defined Function
Extract cell references from formulas with User Defined Function
To extract the cell references from formulas, the below VBA code may do you a favor. Please do as follows:
1. Hold down the ALT + F11 keys to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.
2. Click Insert > Module, and paste the following code in the Module Window.
VBA code: Extract cell references from formulas:
Function ExtractCellRefs(Rg As Range) As String
'Updateby Extendoffice
Dim xRetList As Object
Dim xRegEx As Object
Dim I As Long
Dim xRet As String
Application.Volatile
Set xRegEx = CreateObject("VBSCRIPT.REGEXP")
With xRegEx
.Pattern = "('?[a-zA-Z0-9\s\[\]\.]{1,99})?'?!?\$?[A-Z]{1,3}\$?[0-9]{1,7}(:\$?[A-Z]{1,3}\$?[0-9]{1,7})?"
.Global = True
.MultiLine = True
.IgnoreCase = False
End With
Set xRetList = xRegEx.Execute(Rg.Formula)
If xRetList.Count > 0 Then
For I = 0 To xRetList.Count - 1
xRet = xRet & xRetList.Item(I) & ", "
Next
ExtractCellRefs = Left(xRet, Len(xRet) - 2)
Else
ExtractCellRefs = "No Matches"
End If
End Function
3. After pasting the code, save the code and go back to the worksheet, and enter this formula: =extractcellrefs(G2) (G2 is the cell which contains formula you want to extract the cell references) into a cell where you want to get the result, and then press Enter key, all the cell references have been extracted from the formula, see screenshot:
The Best Office Productivity Tools
Kutools for Excel Solves Most of Your Problems, and Increases Your Productivity by 80%
- Reuse: Quickly insert complex formulas, charts and anything that you have used before; Encrypt Cells with password; Create Mailing List and send emails...
- Super Formula Bar (easily edit multiple lines of text and formula); Reading Layout (easily read and edit large numbers of cells); Paste to Filtered Range...
- Merge Cells/Rows/Columns without losing Data; Split Cells Content; Combine Duplicate Rows/Columns... Prevent Duplicate Cells; Compare Ranges...
- Select Duplicate or Unique Rows; Select Blank Rows (all cells are empty); Super Find and Fuzzy Find in Many Workbooks; Random Select...
- Exact Copy Multiple Cells without changing formula reference; Auto Create References to Multiple Sheets; Insert Bullets, Check Boxes and more...
- Extract Text, Add Text, Remove by Position, Remove Space; Create and Print Paging Subtotals; Convert Between Cells Content and Comments...
- Super Filter (save and apply filter schemes to other sheets); Advanced Sort by month/week/day, frequency and more; Special Filter by bold, italic...
- Combine Workbooks and WorkSheets; Merge Tables based on key columns; Split Data into Multiple Sheets; Batch Convert xls, xlsx and PDF...
- More than 300 powerful features. Supports Office / Excel 2007-2021 and 365. Supports all languages. Easy deploying in your enterprise or organization. Full features 30-day free trial. 60-day money back guarantee.

Office Tab Brings Tabbed interface to Office, and Make Your Work Much Easier
- Enable tabbed editing and reading in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Access, Visio and Project.
- Open and create multiple documents in new tabs of the same window, rather than in new windows.
- Increases your productivity by 50%, and reduces hundreds of mouse clicks for you every day!
