How to link cells in Excel

Microsoft Excel is a very handy computational software tool which has many versatile functions for data handling and performing calculations as well. While handling the big datasets, knowing the methods to link data between cells from other sheets of the same workbook or different workbook is a very useful skill which will save you a lot of time and effort. 

In this tutorial we’ll learn the methods to link data between cells in Excel. The most common scenarios where we can link the data from cells of other sheets are as follows;

• Link cells of the same sheet
• Link cells of another sheet within same workbook (spreadsheet)
• Link cells of another sheet from another workbook (spreadsheet)

Method 1 – Link cells of the same sheet

Step 1 – Link cells of the same sheet using simple cell names

• The simplest of all cases is to link the cells in another cell within the same sheet. This can be done very easily by writing a simple formula that refers to another cell of the same sheet. In this case we’ll use the sum function as =SUM(A2, A3, A4, A5, A6). This formula links cells from A2 to A6 and then sums them. 
• We can also link cells of the same sheet by using the equal to sign and then simply writing the cell name as =A3. This will link the cell A3 with B3 the value of the cell B3 will change with A3 now.

Method 2 – Link cells from another sheet within same worksheet

Step 1 – Link cells from another sheet of the same workbook using sheet name and cell name

• To link the cells from another sheet of the same workbook, we need to refer to the cell name through the sheet name. For this write the equal sign (=) and then Sheet name with exclamation mark ! and then the cell name as follows;

=PlayerData!H4

• We can link a cell with another sheet’s cell by first double clicking the active cell to enter the editing mode. Then writing = and then point to the cell of another sheet which you want to link to the current cell. Excel will automatically write the above mentioned formula for you as shown below;

In the above expression the PlayerData is the name of the sheet, ! the exclamation mark tells Excel that it is a sheet’s name and H4 is the cell we need to link to from the PlayerData sheet.

Method 3 – Link cells from another sheet in another worksheet

Step 1 – Link cells from another sheet of another workbook using sheet name and cell name

• To link the cells from another sheet of the same workbook, we need to refer to the cell name through the sheet name. For this write the full file path, workbook name within square brackets, Sheet name with exclamation mark ! and then the cell name as follows;

=’C:\users\abc\Desktop\[Data Sheet.xlsm]Players DOBs’!C2

• We can link a cell with another workbook’s cell in any sheet by first double clicking the active cell to enter the editing mode. Then write = sign, then point to the cell of another sheet in another workbook which you want to link to the current cell. Excel will automatically write the above-mentioned formula for you as shown below;