It depends what result you want when you then Paste that formula into another cell.
Here are two ways of copying a formula from a Numbers cell and pasting it into another cell.
Process 1:
- Click once on the cell containing the formula to select the cell. Press command-C to Copy.
- Click once on the cell into which you will Paste the formula. Press command-V to Paste.
Process 2:
- Double-click the cell containing the formula to open the Formula Editor.
- Press command-A to select All of the contents of the editor
- Click command-C to Copy.
- Click the green checkmark to close the formula editor.
- Click once on the cell into which you will Paste the formula.
- Type an = sign to open the formula Editor.
- Press command-V to Paste the copied formula into the editor.
- Click the green checkmark to confirm the formula and close the editor.
In the example below, the two formulas shown as text in cells D1 and E1 are entered in D2 and E2 respectively as formulas.
The two formulas are identical except for the $ operators preceding the row part of each cell reference in column E
Results (Process 1): If the cell references in the formula in the Copied cell are relative (eg. B2 or C2:C5). the formula, as pasted into the new cell will reference cells in the same position relative to the location of the new cell as the referenced cells are to the original cell.
Both original formulas reference cell B2 and the four cells in rows 2 through 5 of column C. The result is the sum of the contents of those five cells.
The two cells (D2 as E2) were copied individually,, then pasted in to cells D7 and E7, using Process 1.
Note the different results in D7 (where the relative cells references have adjusted to the new location of the pasted formula—as seen in the formula as displayed below the table) from those in E7 (Where the $ operator had made the row references in the column E version of the formula 'Absolute,' all references are to the same cells as they were in row 2, and the result is the same as in E2.
Row 11 shows the results of the same two formulas, transferred using Process 2. Here, the text version of the formula was copied from the Formula Editor, then pasted into the Formula editor attached to the target cells in the same columns of row 11. Both the 'relative' formula in D11 and the 'absolute rows' formula in E2 are exactly the same in D11 as in D2 and in E11 ans in E2.
Both methods have their uses. Which to use depends on which cells you want to be used in the copies.
Regards,
Barry
