What is Trace Dependents in Google Sheets?
Trace dependents play an important part in the auditing of your spreadsheet. Trace Dependents in Google Sheets is a feature that helps us identify cells that contain formulas that reference a particular cell. There is no built-in “Trace Dependents” feature in Google Sheets like Excel. However, we can do it differently by using add-ons or using features like “Find and Replace.”
Before we proceed further, if you are in doubt about what is a dependent, it is a cell that contains a formula that references another cell. For instance, a cell containing a formula =SUM(A1, B1) is dependent on cells A1 and B1 for its value. These dependent’s are important to trace because you can understand how your data flows across the spreadsheet. Tracing helps how a change in one cell will affect another cell. It can help prevent errors to make your worksheet more accurate.
Key Takeaways
- Dependents are those that use or reference another cell. For example, if cell A3 has a number and cell B3 contains the formula =A3-10, then B3 is a dependent of A3.
- In Google Sheets, we can manually trace dependents using different features like the Find feature, Show Formulas feature, and the Find and Replace feature.
- Trace dependents help one understand how the data flows across sheets and how one cell is dependent on another.
- It is very helpful if different people are working on the same sheet for them to understand how different parts of the sheet are connected.
3 Methods For Tracing Dependents in Google Sheets?
Given below are some of the methods used to trace dependents in Google Sheets.
#1 – Using the Formula Bar
We use the formula bar to trace dependents in Google Sheets. Let us look at the method to do so.
Step 1: Select a cell and view its formula in the formula bar.
Step 2: Now, use the “Find and Replace” tool to locate all instances of that cell reference within formulas across the entire spreadsheet. We can also use the Google Sheets trace dependents shortcut Ctrl+H for Windows or Cmd+Shift+H for Mac.
Step 3: In the Find field, we must enter the cell reference from the formula bar. If the cell reference is another sheet, we enter the sheet name as well. e.g., Sheet1!A2. Check the option “Also search within formulas.”
Step 4: Now, click “Find” to locate all the occurrences of the cell reference within formulas as well.
Step 5: You can analyze your results. Thus, the Formula bar along with the “Find and Replace” tool shows us all cells that contain the formula using the referenced cell. Now, the highlighted cells are the dependents of the cell reference entered.
#2 – Use the ‘Show Formula’ Feature
Excel has a “Trace Dependents” feature while Google Sheets does not. Hence, we look at different ways to trace dependents. In this section, we show you how to use the “Show Formulas” feature and Ctrl + F to effectively trace dependents. Let us look at the steps.
Step 1: We use the same spreadsheet as before. Now, proceed to the “View” menu. Select the “Show” option and choose Formulas. You can also use the shortcut Ctrl + `.
This feature displays the formulas in the cells instead of their results.
Step 2: Now, select the cell whose dependents we are going to trace. We use the Find function by clicking Ctrl+F. Now, enter the cell’s address in the “Find” field. Click the three dots on the right side of “Find.” Ensure that the “Also search within formulas” box is checked.
Step 3: Now, click Find and observe how Google Sheets will showcase all the cells that are dependent and contain that cell’s address.
You can repeat the same for different references.
#3 – Using Find and Replace
We can use the Find and Replace option without the formula bar as well.
Step 1: Click Ctrl + H in Windows or Cmd+Shift+H for Mac to open the “Find and replace” tool.
Step 2: Under “Find,” enter the cell we wish to trace. Go to the next step.
Step 3: If you have multiple sheets, ensure you check “All sheets. ” Also check “Also search within formulas.”
Step 4: Click “Find” to find all instances of that cell. We have to click Find multiple times to check for all instances of the cell to be traced. You should continue to click find until you get the message “Find” until “No more results, looping around” is displayed.
You can try this example with different iterations of column and row locking like Sheet1!$A1, Sheet1!$A$1, $A1, $A$1, etc.
Examples
Using trace dependents, we can find how data points are linked. This will help you confidently make corrections as you will know which cell will be affected. This is very important especially when we use large datasets. Let us look at some examples of how to make this process easier.
Example #1
Let us look at a simple example to trace dependents. Here, we have some values in a sheet where we use the cell C1’s value in many formulas. Let us try to trace the dependents of C1 before we change its value.
Step 1: Click Ctrl + H to open the “Find and replace” tool in Google Sheets.
Step 2: Under “Find cell,” enter the cell we wish to trace. Here, we enter C1.
Step 3: Ensure you check “Also search within formulas” as we wish to search for C1 within formulas as well.
Step 4: Click “Find” to find all instances of cell C1. You will have to keep clicking on Find till all instances of the cell are traced in your sheet.
Step 5: Try changing the value of C1 to 100 and check the results. Many cells are affected! Thus, you can understand the importance of Trace Dependents. This is a fail-safe feature, helping you to make changes without fear of unnecessary consequences.
Example #2
In this example, let us use Show formulas to trace cell dependents. We have some values in a sheet. We have to find all the cells depending on cell C1.
Step 1: Go to the “View” menu. Select the “Show” option and choose Formulas. You can also use the shortcut Ctrl + `.
Now, you can see those cells which have formulas displayed with their formulas.
Step 2: Now, use the Find function by clicking Ctrl+F. Now, enter the cell’s address B2 in the “Find” field. Click the three dots on the right side of “Find.” Ensure that the “Also search within formulas” box is checked.
Step 3: Now, click Find and observe how Google Sheets will showcase all the cells that are dependent and contain that cell’s address.
Once you’ve found the dependent cells, you can go back to View > Show formulas to return to the normal view.
Example #3
In this example, we have a table where A2:A8 contains sales figures of Team 1 and B2:B8 contains the sales figures of Team 2. We find the sum and average sales of both the teams.
Step 1: All the data is as shown below.
Step 2: We use the Find and Replace option to search for all the available instances of cell A2 across the sheet.
Go to Edit -> Find and Replace or press Ctrl + H.
Step 3: In the Find field, type the reference we will be checking for. Here it’s A2.
Step 4: Let us try searching for multiple sheets. So, set Search to All sheets to look across the entire document and check Also search within formulas .
Step 5: Click Find.
Google Sheets will display all the cells that contain references to A2, one by one, across multiple sheets, as you keep clicking Find.
Stop when you get the message “No more results found, looping around.”
Important Things to Note
- Named ranges can help trace dependents with ease as it can give meaningful names to odd formulas in your sheet which you may not understand.
- If you need a more advanced approach to trace dependents, you can write a custom Google Apps Script and use this program to find all dependent cells.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Tracing dependents or finding cells referencing a particular cell in Google Sheets is not as straightforward as in Excel which has a built-in “Trace Dependents” tool. But rest assured, even we can do the same in Google Sheets with ease. Some of the methods include:
1. Use the Find Feature with Ctrl + F.
2. Use the Show Formulas Feature found under View -> Show Formulas.
3. Using the Find and Replace Feature (Ctrl + H)
4. Using Google Apps scripts
5. Using Add-ons
Tracing dependents across different sheets is very simple using the Find and Replace feature, which involves only a single change. Under Search, ensure that you select “All Sheets.” In case you are writing a Google Apps script, it can also handle the search across multiple sheets.
Tracing dependents helps you understand the relationship between cells in different parts of your sheet. Thus, you can understand how the data across the sheet.
For sheets containing complex formulas, tracing dependents helps check if the right references are used.
Tracing dependents helps track dependent cells relying on important data thereby avoiding errors when making changes.
Tracing dependents helps when you make changes in a particular cell, showing you all the cells that will be impacted.
Download Template
This article must help understand Trace Dependents in Google Sheets with its formulas and examples. You can download the template here to use it instantly.
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