Excel Function Tip 🍯 | Mastering the CELL Function to Extract Cell Info! 🔍

 

Hey everyone 🙋‍♀️
Today, I’m introducing a function that may seem unfamiliar,
but it’s incredibly useful for automation and debugging in real-world Excel tasks:
the CELL function! 😎

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✅ What is the CELL function?

CELL helps you:
👉 Extract metadata or properties of a cell — like its address, row, column, format, file name, and more.

It’s not for retrieving “data,” but rather for getting info about the cell itself!

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📐 Basic Syntax

 

=CELL(info_type, [reference])

• info_type: The type of information to return (e.g., "address", "row", "filename")
• [reference]: The cell you want to inspect (if omitted, it uses the current cell)

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Example 1) Get the address of a cell 🧭

 

=CELL("address", A5)

👉 Returns: $A$5

Gives you the absolute reference of cell A5 as text.

 

 

 

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Example 2) Get the current row number 🔢

 

=CELL("row")

👉 Returns the row number of the cell where the formula is written.
(If this is in B7, the result is 7)

You can also get the column number with:

 

=CELL("col", C3) → Result: 3

 

 

 

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Example 3) Get full file path and sheet name 📄

 

=CELL("filename")

👉 Example result:
C:\Users\Me\Documents\[Workbook.xlsx]Sheet1

 

 

 

 

※ Note: this only works after the file is saved!

💡 Want just the sheet name? Try this formula:

 

=RIGHT(CELL("filename"),LEN(CELL("filename"))-FIND("]",CELL("filename")))

👉 This extracts only the sheet name from the full file path.

 

 

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Example 4) Check the cell format 🎨

 

=CELL("format", A1)

This returns format codes like:

• "G": General
• "F0": Number with no decimals
• "F2": Number with 2 decimal places
• "D4": Date format (e.g., YYYY/MM/DD)

※ Advanced use — helpful for debugging or conditional formatting triggers!

 

 

 

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📌 Common info_type values for CELL

CodeDescription

"address"	Cell address (e.g., $B$3)
"row"	Row number
"col"	Column number
"filename"	Full path + file name + sheet
"contents"	Cell contents (the value)
"format"	Format code

 

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✅ Summary

The CELL function is perfect for:
✔ Getting row/column positions
✔ Showing file name or sheet name dynamically
✔ Document metadata automation
✔ Conditional formatting / validation / debugging

You might not use it every day,
but when you do need cell-level info, it’s a must-have in your toolbox 😎

Next time I’ll introduce related functions like INFO, TYPE, and ISBLANK.

Until then, happy Excel-ing! 💻💚