# Excel question -- need to dynamically change cell reference

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-need-to-dynamically-change-cell-reference/459783>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 12, 2008, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-need-to-dynamically-change-cell-reference/459783 "2008-08-12T22:36:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-need-to-dynamically-change-cell-reference/459783/1 "2008-08-12T22:36:03Z")

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Let’s say I have a spreadsheet. In columns E through P I have data for each month of the year (January in E1; February in F1; March in G1…etc).

Let’s also assume that in C1 I have a number that represents the current month (8 for August, etc)

I want to have a formula in A1 that represents the data for the current month: in other words, today it should have the value present in L1. Next month it would have the value present in M1. So I want A1 to =("E+C1"1), if that was legal.

(I know I could do this using LOOKUP, but that seems unduly complicated since I know that August is always going to be in L1)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2008, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-need-to-dynamically-change-cell-reference/459783/2 "2008-08-12T23:35:09Z")

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Never mind…I figured it out. What I’m looking for is =OFFSET