Active cell as input to formula

Question

I was wondering if I can use the active cell, by that I mean the cell that is "highlighted" at a given time with the square border after there was a mouse click there, as an argument in a function.

For example, I have created a table with weighted averages with 3 weights: w1 is given in the column headers (kindly see the file below), w2 in the row headers, and w3 which complements w1 and w2 to 1.

What I'd like to do is have cells outside the table show the weights the average got when a cell in the table is selected.

For example: Screenshot: http://imgur.com/emmBH5S/

file can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_7-00fdslR7Tm11ODRVS296ckk/

Here we see the cell K12 is active, and for K12 w1=0.2, w2=0.15, and so, the cells in the weights tables above (rows 3-4) get the appropriate values according to the weights in the active cell. (of course I manually created this one for illustration purposes)

Is there a way to do that? Preferably without VBA if possible Couldn't find anything very useful...

Thanks in advance! A

Answer 1

You don't need VBA (although you may prefer it).

W1: =INDEX($F$8:$AA$29,1,MAX(COLUMN(INDIRECT(CELL("address")))-(COLUMN(F8)-1),1))
W2: =INDEX($F$8:$AA$29,MAX(ROW(INDIRECT(CELL("address")))-(ROW(F8)-1),1),1)
W3: =J4-(G4+H4)

The CELL function with the address argument returns the address for whichever cell is active. I use INDIRECT to convert that address (just a string) to a cell reference. Then I use

=INDEX(Range, 1, Column of Reference)

to get the w1 value - the value in the first row and the same column as the active cell. The formula doesn't care what cell you make active, so I stuck a MAX in there so it would return a zero if you're out of the range.

Note that simply selecting a cell won't trigger the change. Once you select a cell, press F9 to calculate the sheet to get the proper results.

Answer 2

You need to use VBA. Following your example place this code in your Sheet object

Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
    If Target.Row > 8 And Target.Column > 6 Then
        Range("G4").Value = Cells(8, Target.Column).Value
        Range("H4").Value = Cells(Target.Row, 6).Value
        Range("L4").Value = Cells(Target.Row, Target.Column).Value
    End If
End Sub

Cell L4 shows your selected cell value which can be used in other formulas.

EDIT

To place your code you go to VBA window and double click on the Sheet object where you have your data. (Marked with an arrow in the picture) Then paste yout code.