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Excel OFFSET Function for Dynamic Calculations
Excel OFFSET Function for
Dynamic Calculations
Do you want to create formulas that “move” with your
Excel Dependent Combo Box
raw data set?
Excel Unstack Data Trick
That’s when you need to use Excel’s OFFSET function.

OFFSET is a great formula whenever you have dynamic
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ranges involved. Some examples are:

Calculating the average of the last three months when you add new data to your table
Getting data from the last cell in your raw data range – either last row or last column in that Topics
range
Grabbing data from a data table based on a point of view chosen by the user
Complex calculations that require “moving” data sets Charts Dashboards

OFFSET is a difficult one to get the hang of because of the number of arguments involved. Dynamic Arrays Features

Think of it as a GPS: Formulas Other News

You give it a starting point and then you tell it: PowerPoint

how many rows to go down Uncategorized VBA

how many columns to move across
and what range you want returned

Like this:

3 Practical cases of Excel OFFSET is shown in this Video

Excel OFFSET Function for Dynamic Calculations - …

Alternatively read on if you prefer that to watching the video…

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Excel OFFSET Function for Dynamic Calculations – Explained in

Simple Steps
Offset is an interesting formula and it’s one that can do so much more than meets the eye. Offset is a
way of giving Excel an address to go to.
You start off by telling it how many rows to move and then how many columns to move to get to its
destination. This destination can be a single house (e.g. a single cell), it can be a street (e.g. many cells
in one row or one column), or it can also be a town (e.g. an area of rows and columns).

Excel Offset: Data Arranged Vertically (0:45)

In this example, we have a table with Months in the first column and Sales Revenue in the second
column.

One way of getting the average of the last six months, is to use the AVERAGE function. To do that, you
highlight the cells under the Sales column.

However, the problem is that with a dynamic report such as this, there would be new monthly data
coming in after August, and so you would have to manually drag the range of the AVERAGE function
to refer to the most recent six months.

The OFFSET function helps you avoid having to do this!

To start, let us go through the OFFSET function on its own before we move on to integrating it in the
AVERAGE function. The syntax of OFFSET is:

=OFFSET(reference, rows, cols, [height], [width])

Let’s do a simple example:

You always need a starting point as a reference. Pick any cell that is close to the range that you want
to move around in. In this example, we can select cell B3, which is the column header of the Sales
column.

After that, indicate how many rows you want to move down. Let’s say I want to move down 1 row.
Then specify how many columns you want to move. I want to stay in this column, I will type 0.

The last two arguments are the [height] and the [width]. Writing down 1 for height and 1 for width,
means I want one cell. These last two arguments can never be 0,0. The minimum they can be is 1,1. If
you want to refer to three rows, you’d write 3,1.

For this example, let’s start with using 1,1. My formula at this stage look like this:

=OFFSET(B3,1,0,1,1)

You will notice that the formula’s result is 100. What happens is that it starts at cell B3, and goes down
1 row, then it doesn’t move columns, then it gives us one cell. This gives us 100.

If you set the row parameter to 3, it would move down three rows and give you 130.

=OFFSET(B3,3,0,1,1)

For the column parameter, putting a -1 would move one column to the left and return the date in cell
A6. Using a +1 for the column parameter moves one column to the right and returns a 0 because cell
C6 is empty. This is how OFFSET works.

If we want to use a range instead of a single cell, we would specify a value greater than 1 (or smaller
than -1) for the [height] parameter. Writing the syntax as:

=OFFSET(B3,3,0,3,1)

This results in an error. Why? Let’s track what it’s doing. It starts from cell B3, moves down three cells
to B6 and then it tries to give us cells B6, B7 and B8. However, it can’t actually put these three cells in
one cell.

Whenever the OFFSET function is used in a way where the last two arguments are ranges, and they’re
not just returning one cell but a range of cells, you need to wrap your OFFSET formula in a formula
that can handle ranges. Examples of this would be the AVERAGE, SUM, or the COUNT formula.

In this case, we’re going to use the AVERAGE formula. The function would now be:

=AVERAGE(OFFSET(B3,3,0,3,1))

It results in 108, which is the average of B6, B7 and B8 cells. If we were to expand on this formula to
get the last six months, we have to write the formula differently.

One way is by identifying the last cell in the column using the COUNT function and then use -6 as the
[height], which helps us highlight our range “backwards”.

Another way is to find the last cell, then go back 6 rows and then specify the [height] as +6. It might
seem confusing at the start, so let’s start with the simpler method first.

Start by using cell B3 as your reference. How many cells should we move down? Use the COUNT or
COUNTA function to count the number of filled cells that we have in the Sales column right below B3.

The COUNT formula only counts if values are numbers.

The COUNTA function counts a cell even if it’s text.

In this case, it doesn’t matter if we use the COUNT or the COUNTA function.

Using the COUNT function, we highlight the cells under B3. It’s essential to highlight more cells than
what you’re currently using, because you want to take into account new data that will be added in the
future. The formula would now be:

=AVERAGE(OFFSET(B3,COUNTA(B4:B15),0,-6,1))

This is a breakdown of the formula:

Reference is cell B3.

Row parameter uses COUNTA function which results in a 7. This tells the OFFSET to move 7
cells below B3.
Column parameter is set to 0, which means it stays in the same column.
[Height] parameter is -6 because we want to take the last 6 cells (move backwards). In this case,
it will highlight cells B5 to B10.
[Width] parameter is 1 by default.

This formula results in 113.

Now, when we add data for a new month on cell B11 – let’s say, 200 – the formula automatically
updates to an average of 127, which we can check by comparing it to the average displayed on the
status bar when cells B6 to B11 are highlighted.

We can also check this by going to Formulas > Evaluate Formula, and then click on the Evaluate
button. You will see that the final range that it’s taking is the average of B6 to B11, which is what we
intended.

The other way of writing this average offset formula is:

=AVERAGE(OFFSET(B4,COUNT(B4:B14)-6,0,6,1)

The breakdown of this is:

Reference is set to the first data value, B4

Row uses a COUNTA function which counts all the filled cells from B4 to B14 and subtracts 6.
Column is 0, indicating no movement or shift of columns.
[Height] is 6, which highlights 6 cells (going downwards).
[Width] is 1 by default, since we only need one column.

This results in 127 as well. These are two different ways of writing the formula.
Let’s take another example where the data is arranged in a horizontal manner.

Excel Offset: Data Arranged Horizontally (9:01)

To perform the same computation, we follow a similar approach. We start with the AVERAGE function
followed by the OFFSET function. We write it as:

=AVERAGE(OFFSET(A17,0,COUNT(B17:O17),1,-6))

which translates as:

Reference set to A17

Row set to 0, indicating no movement. We want to stay on the same row.
Column parameter uses the COUNT function which counts the number of cells with values from
columns B to O. Column O is an estimate of where you think you will have numbers. This part
gives us a 7.
[height] is set to 1 since we are referencing only one row.
[width] is set to –6, which highlights 6 columns to the left of the last completed cell (goes
backwards).

This achieves the same as getting the average of the last six months from July. If we again add data for
August, it automatically updates to include August and then computes the average of the last six
months. This results in 127.

Just be creative and practice this in all directions until you get the hang of it.

Excel Offset: Dynamic Range for Moving Average Calculations

(10:42)
Another good example is the case where you allow the user to select the month and your formula
provides the average of the next 3 months.

This is your raw data:

To perform this computation, we’re going to do the same thing by using the AVERAGE function
together with OFFSET.

Let’s fix our starting point to the column header, B25.

For the row, we want to move down the number of cells to arrive at the selected month that the user
picked from the drop-down. The MATCH function would give us the position of the selected month in
the data table.

For example, if the selected month is 04/2014, which corresponds to 90, the formula needs to find the
position of 90 in the data table, which is the fourth row. To use the MATCH() function, the syntax is:

=MATCH(lookup_value, array, [match_type])

We refer to the drop-down cell, F25, as the lookup_value, and the Month column A26:A51 as the
array. [match_type] is set 0 for a perfect match. The formula will read:

=MATCH(F25,A25:A51,0).

This would count the position of the selected month. In the case of 04/2014, it results in 4.

Column can be set to 0 because we want to stay in column B.

[Height] depends on the question. If we want to include the selected month in the computation, we
would use a 3.

[Width] is set to 1 .

The resulting formula is:

=AVERAGE(OFFSET(B25,MATCH(F25,A26:A51,0),0,3,1)

which yields 102.

If we do not want to include the selected month in the computation, we have to add a +1 to our
MATCH function. This tells the formula to find this selected month and go down one extra cell. The
final formula becomes:

=AVERAGE(OFFSET(B25,MATCH(F25,A26:A51,0)+1,0,3,1)

The average yields 113, which is the average of the three months after the selected month, i.e.
average of B30:B32.

This is completely dynamic so if you were to select December 2014, you would get an average of 232
for the three months after this month.

This is how you can use the AVERAGE function, the OFFSET function, and the MATCH functions all
together to create this dynamic effect in your Excel files.

Caution!
A word of caution is that the OFFSET is a volatile Excel formula, which means it calculates every time
you make a move in Excel. To be honest, in the files that I’ve used OFFSET in, I’ve hardly experienced
my files becoming slow because of using this function. But I also didn’t overdose on them. I
recommend that you don’t overuse them.

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11 Comments

IF December 10, 2017 at 3:56 am - Reply

I use OFFSET and Define Name to dynamically track the most recent 5 test results on a
spreadsheet that expands over time… and that data is fed to rolling charts.
 =OFFSET(‘Test Results’!J6,1,COUNTA(‘Test Results’!$I$5:$DD$5)-5,1,-1)

The problem I run into is when entering the first few results. Any time there are less columns
(or rows) with data than you have indicated in your OFFSET formula, the formula will
reference irrelevant cells or produce errors if it runs out of columns (or rows).
For example, if my OFFSET is set to -5 (columns), but I only have 2 or 3 columns of data, my
Offset formula will still try to reference 5 columns… so it will end up referencing column titles
or whatever is to the left of my starting reference, or it will produce an error because there
are no more columns remaining on the spreadsheet.

Should I be using INDEX instead? Or maybe there’s some kind of parameter that tells OFFSET
to stop at a specified column, or mixing in an IF, THEN formula? I feel like I’m missing
something simple:/

Leila Gharani December 11, 2017 at 8:22 am - Reply

Hi – Yes you can use INDEX or stick with OFFSET and use an IF. Depending on what you
want returned, here are some options:
=INDEX($J$7:$DD$7,,IF(COUNTA($I$5:$DD$5)-5>0,COUNTA($I$5:$DD$5)-5,0)) which
returns 0 if the count is below 5 or with offset
you can use this formula for the column argument:
IF(COUNTA($I$5:$DD$5)-5>0,COUNTA($I$5:$DD$5)-5,ABS(COUNTA($I$5:$DD$5)-5)) or:
IF(COUNTA($I$5:$DD$5)
<5,CHOOSE(COUNTA($I$5:$DD$5),1,2,3,4),COUNTA($I$5:$DD$5)-5) for the column
argument. It depends on what you want returned if the value is below 5.

IF December 11, 2017 at 9:09 pm - Reply

Awesome!! I used a similar version of OFFSET and added a couple MIN/MAX COLUMNS
parameters. I’m also going to check out the INDEX option too, just as a less volatile
approach. REEEEaally appreciate the info:))

RW January 17, 2018 at 6:21 pm - Reply

I use the offset function to show the most recent 12 weeks of data on my graphs but there is
one recent week where we literally don’t have any data. I want to leave the cell blank but still
include it in the cell count which would result in one missing data point on my graph. The
COUNT and COUNTA functions won’t allow that and COUNTBLANK only counts the blank
cells when I need to count all the cells which from the past 12 weeks which includes 11 cells
with numbers and 1 blank cell (the missing data point). Is there a way to use the COUNTIF
function to count both blank cells and cells containing data or do you have any other advice?

Leila Gharani January 18, 2018 at 8:00 am - Reply

How about using countif with wildcards to find at least one character similar to what I
show in this video: https://youtu.be/7fYlWeMQ6L8 Fast forward to 12:20.
You might also find the video interesting if you want to skip blanks in your chart:
https://youtu.be/lQG-g6_noPc
Hope this helps.

Ben June 25, 2018 at 6:02 pm - Reply

Hi Leila,

What is the difference between offset and index? Is there anything offset can do that index
can’t? If no, why would anybody want to use offset instead of index when it is know that
offset is more volatile and can slow down larger files?

PS: I’m using offset for dependent drop-down lists (source list is dynamic, adding rows of
data up to 10 times a month), but would definitely change it to index if possible.

Thanks,
Ben

Renei September 27, 2018 at 2:56 am - Reply

Hi,

I work with financial performance data and for calculating inception performance I need
inception count.

I wanted to find out whether I am able to insert an offset function that will automatically
include new entries when I populate performance on a monthly bases while still fixing the
inception cell.

For example
With a count formula, I can have
Count (#B3:BF3) to fix the inception column B, which is fine. But this will require an update
everytime new data is populated-eg, if an extra month of performance is added, reference
BF3 will have to be updated to BG3.
 , I figured an offset function could be more efficient as the formulas automatically update to
include new data, however, I don’t know how to fix the inception reference B3, and still have
the formula updating to BG3.

Is there a way to achieve this with offset functions?

Joy February 11, 2019 at 2:42 am - Reply

Leila, do you have examples where you use the OFFSET function to create a dynamic range
name?

Thank you so much for all your amazing work! As a trainer teaching Excel for over 30 years, I
wish I had someone like you as I developed my skills.

Cheers!
Joy

Leila Gharani February 11, 2019 at 6:01 pm - Reply

Hi Joy – Thank you! I’m glad you enjoy the tutorials. You’ll find an example of offset in
name manager in this video. Towards the end, where I create the dependent drop
down. I try to use the INDEX formula instead wherever I can, as INDEX is not volatile.

https://writing-help.org/blog/views-on-racism-essay March 14, 2019 at 9:09 pm - Reply

It is very needed to be a professional at least in one of Microsoft office programs. Your post
is very useful for beginners in this matter. Excel is very hard to learn program.

why me redact feature article March 19, 2019 at 10:12 pm - Reply

Wow. This function is really useful. I often use this program, especially in the learning
process. And the offset function allows you to save time to fill the data. Fine.

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