Enable Column Formulas to Be More Flexible

EV_1

Hello SS Community,

I was fortunate to find a fantastic trick proposed by Paul Newcome in 2021 to index the occurrence of a value in a given column. It was exactly what I was looking for. The only drawback is that there are limitations to column formulas (see screen clipping). In my solution I am using Absolute references which, you can see below, is an unsupported reference type.

Would you please find a way to allow for some of these currently-unsupported types in column formulas? It's such a terrific solution, and yet having to drag the formula down the entire column anytime a row is added or deleted detracts from its efficacy.

Here's a link to the tip from Paul Newcome:

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/81127/identify-cell-instance-count

Paulo Ferrer

There are many limitations to the column formula, but the one that bothers me the most is the impossibility of referring to a single cell. For example, if I want to capture a number that is in the first row and first column, as a constant, I can't get it in the column formula. Increasing referencing flexibility in column formulas would be a big step forward.