How To Name Ranges In Google Sheets

How To Name Ranges In Google Sheets

Google Sheets formulas can easily become complex and confusing, making them hard to update and maintain.

One factor adding to this difficulty is the problem of range references in formulas.

While it’s easy to add them to formulas, it’s much harder to remember what data the references point to when you want to update your formulas months or years later.

Using Named Ranges can help with this. Google Sheets allows you to name ranges and use these names later in formulas to reference those ranges more easily

Follow these steps to name ranges in Google Sheets

Step 1

Use the mouse to highlight the range you want to name

Step 2

Open the Data menu and click on Named Ranges. The Named Ranges sidebar will open

Step 3

In the Named Ranges sidebar, type in the name you want for your range.

This should be something short but descriptive as you will be using it to reference the range in formulas later.

Once you’ve selected a name, click Done to save the name

Step 4

You’ll see the named range appear in the list in the sidebar

Step 5

Repeat steps 1-3 to add any additional range names

Note that you can always open the Named Range sidebar again using the instructions in step 2 to check what named ranges your spreadsheet contains

How to Reference a Named Ranges in Formulas

Now that you’ve named your ranges, it’s time to use those names in formulas. Here’s how:

Step 1

Double click on the cell in which you want to add a formula to enter edit mode, then begin typing your formula as you normally would

Step 2

When you want to reference the range, instead of using the usual A1 cell references, type in the name of the named range.

You’ll know that the name is a valid range name because it will change color when you finish typing the name

Step 3

You can now use the range names you’ve created in formulas anywhere in your spreadsheet and don’t have to type unclear A1 notation references

Summary

Example Spreadsheet: Make a copy of the example spreadsheet

In this tutorial, I covered how to name ranges in Google Sheets. Want more? Check out all the Google Sheets Tutorials.