I have a google docs spreadsheet with two columns: A and B. Values of B are just values from A in a different format, and I have a formula in the B column that does the conversion. Sometimes I do not have the values in A format but I have them in B format. I would like to automatically get the values in A format in the A column by adding the formula that does the reverse conversion in the A column. This, of course, generates a circular reference. Is there a way to get around it?
From this week, Google Sheets has announced support for exactly this feature. You can now limit the number of iterations for circular references in the spreadsheets settings :-)
On the top menu of a google spreadsheet do the following:
File > Spreadsheet settings
Choose the "Calculation" tab, and change "Iterative calculation" to ON.
Enjoy :D.
PD: I know that this post is too old, but just some days ago I needed a solution to this, and I couldn´t find any.
In excel you can set it to allow circular dependencies and limit the number of iterations they run (usually 1 is the desired result).
I've looked and nothing like that exists in sheets.
I know that this post is pretty old, but I saw it while looking to see the applications of a thing.
In sheets, you can use importrange to reference the same sheet and call the desired range. For instance, you can put a formula in B1 that is =A1+1 and in A1 use the formula =importrange(<THIS SHEET ID>,"B1")+1.
You may need to initially put the formula in A2 and then move it up to A1, but it should work.
Doing something like this essentially makes a second counter, which is neat I guess?
Solved with a script that implements the following algorithm
for each row{
if (A != "" && B == "")
B = conversionFromA(A);
if (A == "" && B != "")
A = conversionFrom(B);}
of course it has it's downsides, (you have to call the script each time you enter new data), but it's the best solution I found
I would add two more columns: data source and data format. Then, the formula in column A would take a value from data source either as is (if the format matches) or converted (if format doesn't match). Same for column B.
I just ran into this while trying to setup formulae to compute metrics from my workout.
Instead of referencing your co-dependent formula cells, use other cells to hold your actual (non-formulaic) data and use the formula cells to show your results. There's no way to get around circular references, unfortunately.
来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14383613/getting-around-circular-reference-in-google-spreadsheet