Excel Column Function Tutorial

By Ryan Dozier on February 28, 2011 in How To, Microsoft Office

The Excel Column Function kind of seems lame since what it does can be easily figured out. But, even though I haven’t found a reason to use this function myself, have found an interesting article about how it can come in handy depending on what you are trying to use it for. This article talks about the ROW function but also touches on the Column function as well. It explains how these functions are great with formulas that need an incremental value.Take a second to read through it if you like.

Now back to the tutorial, below is the syntax and a couple of examples of using the Column Function.

Excel Column Function

First lest talk about the syntax. It is not hard at all to understand, here it it:

Column ( reference )

So all you have to do is but the CELL reference in the parenthesis and that’s it. The Column function will automatically pull the number of that column. The cell reference is optional too, if it isn’t specified, the Column Function will reference the cell it is in.

Here is what Column() will look like in any cell.

If you entered in a Reference, like a Range (A1, or A1:A3), Column Function would read those as 1 as well. Below are the examples of these two scenarios.

Here is =Column(A2) Example:

Here is Column(A1:A3) example:

Not that hard to figure out the function. Like we said previously the the Column Function does is not’ all that great but when paired with other functions that need an incremental value the Column Function is invaluable. Don’t forget to check out our other Excel how to articles and leave a comment in the comment section below. If you need some Excel help or help with anything related to Microsoft Office, Windows Operating Systems, Mac OS X please post them in our forums.