5.1.3 The ``Address'' Function

The address function is hardly exciting. It requires a number of parameters to generate the text of a cell address.

• Parameter 1: this is the row number. For cell G5, we should specify 5 because G5 is on row 5.
• Parameter 2: this is the column number. Although in a cell address the column is alphabetical, we can easily translate them to numbers. ``A'' is column 1, ``B'' is column 2, and etc. As a result, cell G5 has a column number of 7.
• Parameter 3: A number to indicate relative/absolute modes. The default value of 1 is okay for our assignment.
  • 1 for absolute for both row and column
  • 2 for absolute for row only
  • 3 for absolute for column only
  • 4 for relative for both row and column
• Parameter 4: A number to indicate the address form. The default of 1 is okay for our assignment
  • 1 for the usual cell address format (alphabetical column, numeric row)
  • 0 for an alternate address formate using the R1C1 notation for cell A1.
• Parameter 5: this is the name of the worksheet. This is only necessary when we refer to cells that are on a different worksheet (from the cell containing the formula).

Note that the ``address'' function only returns the text of a cell address. It is great for viewing, but it does not actually get the value of the cell.

As an example, we can specify the address of cell A21 of sheet ``Monthly'' by =address(21, 1,,, "Monthly"). However, recall that we already how column D of worksheet ``Annual'' listing the useful row numbers of ``Monthly''. This means we can use =address(D2, 1,,, "Monthly") as the formula of cell A2 of ``Annual''.