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Finding nearby cells with offsets

Sometimes you want to calculate things based upon cells close by to the cell you are providing a calculation in.

OFFSET() retrieves the values in cells offset from the current location by a certain number of rows and columns. It takes two arguments: the number of rows down to move from the current location, and the number of columns to move right.

You can also specify height and width arguments to return a range of cells, which is often useful in combination with a summary statistic function like SUM(), AVERAGE() or MAX().

This exercise is part of the course

Intermediate Google Sheets

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Exercise instructions

  • In cell I1, get the count of Skippers in the Indian Subcontinent as the value from the cell offset 1 down from C1.
  • In cell I2, again get the count of Skippers in the Indian Subcontinent, this time as the value from the cell offset 2 right from A2.
  • In cell I3, get the count of Skippers in Western Himalaya as the values from the range of cells offset 2 right from A3, with height 7, and sum them.

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