I've been working with LibreOffice Calc (or Excel) spreadsheets recently and wanted to share some of the things I've learned.
**Absolute vs Relative Cell References**
The main difference between referencing a cell relatively vs absolute is that the absolute reference includes a `$` in the front. This is important if you want to drag a formula across multiple cells.
```excel
$A:$B
```
**Referring to a sheet name**
To refer to cells in another sheet, first begin the reference with the sheet name, then a period, follow by the cells you wish to reference in that sheet. If the sheet name has spaces in it, then you need to wrap it in quotes.
```excel
'Another Sheet'.A:B
```
**Referring to a column**
To refer to a single column, you need to repeat the column name separated by a colon.
```excel
B:B
```
**Get row that matches a query**
For this we'll use the `MATCH` function. It takes three parameters:
1. The value to match
2. The range of cells to query over
3. Which comparison function to use. Use `0` for equality.
It will then return the first row number that matches the query.
```excel
MATCH("Bob", B:B, 0)
```
**Query a value based on another from that row.**
To do this, we will need to combine both the `INDEX` function and the `MATCH` function. The `INDEX` function takes three parameters:
1. The range of cells to reference
2. The row number
3. The column number
Use the `MATCH` function as the second argument, and you can reference another column of a row based on a query.
