CELL Function
The CELL function is one of the information functions. It is used to return information about the formatting, location, or contents of a cell.
The CELL function syntax is:
CELL(info_type, [reference])
where:
info_type is a text value that specifies which information about the cell you want to get. This is the required argument. The available values are listed in the table below.
[reference] is a cell that you want to get information about. If it is omitted, the information is returned for the last changed cell. If the reference argument is specified as a range of cells, the function returns the information for the upper left cell of the range.
| Text value | Type of the information |
| "address" | Returns the reference to the cell. |
| "col" | Returns the column number where the cell is located. |
| "color" | Returns 1 if the cell is formatted in color for negative values; otherwise returns 0. |
| "contents" | Returns the value that the cell contains. |
| "filename" | Returns the filename of the file that contains the cell. |
| "format" | Returns a text value corresponding to the number format of the cell. The text values are listed in the table below. |
| "parentheses" | Returns 1 if the cell is formatted with parentheses for positive or all values; otherwise returns 0. |
| "prefix" | Returns the single quotation mark (') if the text in the cell is left aligned, the double quotation mark (") if the text is right aligned, the caret (^) if the text is centered, and an empty text ("") if the cell contains anything else. |
| "protect" | Returns 0 if the cell is not locked; returns 1 if the cell is locked. |
| "row" | Returns the row number where the cell is located. |
| "type" | Returns "b" for an empty cell, "l" for a text value, and "v" for any other value in the cell. |
| "width" | Returns the width of the cell, rounded off to an integer. |
Below you can see the text values which the function returns for the "format" argument
| Number format | Returned text value |
| General | G |
| 0 | F0 |
| #,##0 | ,0 |
| 0.00 | F2 |
| #,##0.00 | ,2 |
| $#,##0_);($#,##0) | C0 |
| $#,##0_);[Red]($#,##0) | C0- |
| $#,##0.00_);($#,##0.00) | C2 |
| $#,##0.00_);[Red]($#,##0.00) | C2- |
| 0% | P0 |
| 0.00% | P2 |
| 0.00E+00 | S2 |
| # ?/? or # ??/?? | G |
| m/d/yy or m/d/yy h:mm or mm/dd/yy | D4 |
| d-mmm-yy or dd-mmm-yy | D1 |
| d-mmm or dd-mmm | D2 |
| mmm-yy | D3 |
| mm/dd | D5 |
| h:mm AM/PM | D7 |
| h:mm:ss AM/PM | D6 |
| h:mm | D9 |
| h:mm:ss | D8 |
To apply the CELL function,
- select the cell where you wish to display the result,
- click the Insert function
icon situated at the top toolbar,
or right-click within a selected cell and select the Insert Function option from the menu,
or click the
icon situated at the formula bar,
- select the Information function group from the list,
- click the CELL function,
- enter the required argument,
- press the Enter button.
The result will be displayed in the selected cell.
