If you’re a fan of Excel, you might be familiar with its formula auditing feature that allows you to trace precedents and dependents. However, if you’ve made the switch to Google Sheets, you’ll notice that this feature is missing. Don’t worry, though! There are workarounds available that can help you perform formula auditing in Google Sheets to some extent.
The Purpose of Formula Auditing in Spreadsheets
Before we dive into the workarounds, let’s understand the purpose of formula auditing in spreadsheets. When you use formulas in your sheets, it’s crucial to ensure that the right references are applied. Formula auditing helps you identify the cells or arrays used in a formula and visually highlights them.
For example, let’s say you’re using the SUM function to calculate a total at the bottom of a column. With formula auditing, you can easily see which range is being used in that formula. Excel indicates arrays or ranges with borders, dots on cells, and connecting arrows.
Unfortunately, Google Sheets doesn’t have the same formula auditing capabilities as Excel. But fret not, we’ve got some workarounds for you!
How to Do Formula Auditing in Google Sheets
Before we jump into the workarounds, there are a couple of tips that can make your formula auditing experience in Google Sheets more seamless. First, embrace Array Formulas whenever possible. These formulas extend from one cell to a range and can simplify your formula structures.
Additionally, make sure to use closed ranges, such as A1:Z1000, instead of open ranges like A:Z or A1:Z, to ensure the workarounds for trace dependents function correctly.
Now, let’s explore four workarounds for trace precedents and trace dependents formula auditing in Google Sheets.
Trace Precedents Formula Auditing in Google Sheets
Workaround 1: Leverage the F2 Cell Edit Feature
- Navigate to the cell that contains the formula you want to audit.
- Press the F2 keyboard shortcut in Google Sheets on Windows or use Shift + Enter/Return on Mac. You can also double-click on the cell. The cells connected to the formula will be highlighted with colored dots.
- Move the cursor pointer to the left using the left arrow key on your keyboard. This will highlight the cell or range used in the formula one by one.
This serves as an alternative solution to Excel Formula Auditing in Google Sheets for trace precedents.
Drawback:
If the formula uses references to another sheet in the same Google Sheets, this method won’t yield the desired result.
Workaround 2: How to Go to the Range Used in a Formula
In Excel, you can easily go to the range of a formula by double-clicking on a small icon. In Google Sheets, we’ll follow a slightly different approach:
- Copy the reference from the formula.
- Go to the Name Box by pressing Ctrl + J in Windows or Command + J in Mac. Paste the reference and hit enter. The Name Box is a small box to the left of the formula bar.
- Alternatively, you can click on Help > Search the menus > Go to range and paste the reference, then hit enter or click on the
>button.
Trace Dependents Formula Auditing in Google Sheets
When it comes to trace dependents, you might miss the Excel formula auditing feature in Google Sheets. However, we have a couple of workarounds that can help.
Workaround 1: Using Show Formula and Find Command
Use this method when you want to search for a specific cell or range used in a formula.
- Press Ctrl + ` (both in Windows and Mac) or click on View > Show > Formulae to enable the Show Formula feature.
- Use Ctrl + F in Windows or Command + F in Mac to open the Find dialog box.
- Enter the cell or range reference and hit enter. This will highlight the formulas that use the exact cell or range reference.
Drawbacks:
This method can only match the exact range or cell and applies to the sheet that you search. If the cell or range reference has any dependents in another sheet, they won’t be highlighted.
Workaround 2: Using Find and Replace Command and Regular Expression Match
We can address the drawbacks mentioned above using this workaround.
- Click on Edit > Find and Replace (Ctrl + H in Windows and Command + Shift + H in Mac) to open the Find and Replace command. Enable “Search within formulae” and set the search scope to “All sheets.”
- Enter the cell or range address, including the sheet name if necessary, in the Find field.
- Leave the “Replace” field empty.
- Click on “Find” to locate the dependent formula(s) within the current sheet or other sheets in the workbook.
Conclusion
While Google Sheets may not have the exact formula auditing capabilities as Excel, these workarounds can help you perform trace precedents and trace dependents to some extent. If you’re comfortable giving permissions to apps, you can also explore Google Sheets add-ons to simplify your formula auditing process.
I hope this tutorial fulfills your requirements for formula auditing in Google Sheets without using add-ons. If you have any other questions or need further assistance, feel free to check out Crawlan.com for more helpful tips and tricks.
