9

I have a named range (NamedRange1) and I need to reference the first row and first column of that range within a formula. I came up with the following:

  • First row:

    INDIRECT("R" & ROW(UnpivotSource) & "C" & COLUMN(UnpivotSource) & ":R"& ROWS(UnpivotSource) +ROW(UnpivotSource) -1 & "C" & COLUMN(UnpivotSource),0)

  • First column:

    INDIRECT("R" & ROW(UnpivotSource) & "C" & COLUMN(UnpivotSource) & ":R"& ROW(UnpivotSource) & "C" & COLUMNS(UnpivotSource) + COLUMN(UnpivotSource) -1,0)

This seems cumbersome, especially since the Excel object model exposes Rows and Columns in VBA. Is there a more concise way of expressing this?

Improve this question
16

Row:

INDEX(UnpivotSource,1,0)

Column:

INDEX(UnpivotSource,0,1)

Note that this will only work for contiguous named-ranges, there's an index function for areas of a range, but it could get tricky if you wanted something other than the first row or column.

Improve this answer
4
  • Beautiful, works great and way shorter. Thanks! – technomalogical Jun 25 '10 at 12:48
  • Under the hood of xl do you think if I use this technique, for say Max, it will be more efficient e.g. Max("A:A") compared to Max(index(myNmdRang,0,1)) ? – whytheq Mar 24 '16 at 9:30
  • @whytheq, My guess would be that for large columns Max("A:A") would be the most efficient. You could time and test, see here: stackoverflow.com/questions/198409/…. – Lance Roberts Mar 25 '16 at 3:11
  • @LanceRoberts I added a more detailed question on S.O here: stackoverflow.com/questions/36197157/… You might like to answer as the current answer is not good enough. – whytheq Mar 25 '16 at 9:03

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.