| Absolute Cell Reference | A cell reference that does not change as a formula is copied/moved from one cell to another. In A1 notation, such references have a dollar symbol in front of both the column and row specifier. | $A$1, R1C1 |
| Cell Address | The absolute location of an individual cell to be used for lookup purposes. A cell reference can be resolved into an address. Usually this is trivial but if it’s a relative reference then the location of the referring cell must also be known. | |
| Column Reference | A reference to all the cells in one or more adjacent columns. | A:C |
| Defined Name | An alias (name) for a formula. Typicially used to alias range references. | InterestRates=Sheet1!A1:D2 |
| Formula | An expression in a spreadsheet formula language. Can contain function calls, references, operators and constants. Typically starts with a an equals sign (=) but this is sometimes omitted in internal representations where the value is known to be a formula. | =SUM(A3:D3) + 300 |
| Mixed Cell Reference | A cell reference in which either the row or column is absolute and the other is relative. | $A1, R1C[-2] |
| Name Reference | A reference to a defined name. | InterestRates |
| Qualified Reference | A reference that contains a prefix ending with a bang !. The prefix specifies the name of the sheet, and/or the name of the workbook (and sometimes its file path), containing the element being referred to. | D:\Reports\[Sales.xlsx]Jan!B2:B5, [Sales.xlsx]!InterestRates |
| Range Reference | A reference to a range of cells. | A1:C4 |
| Reference | A formula element that points to something else, like a cell, range of cells or a defined name. | Sheet1!A1 |
| Relative cell reference | A cell reference that changes as a formula is copied/moved from one cell to another, so that the offset from the source cell and the target cell remains the same. | A1, R[-2]C[1] |
| Row Reference | A reference to all the cells in one or more adjacent rows. | 4:6 |
| Unqualified Reference | A reference without a sheet/workbook prefix and bang !. If an unqualified cell reference occurs within a sheet, then it is considered to reference cells in the same sheet. Otherwise it is considered to refer to the first sheet. | A1 |
