Excel claims I have all sorts of circular references. For example, in cell M8 I have the formula:



=INDIRECT("C" & D3)

The value of D3 is the number 14, so the reference is to cell C14. The value of cell C14 is the number 96, so the value in cell M8 should be, and is, 96. Yet in the Status Bar Excel says "Circular References: M8". Why?

Your formula works fine for me.
Can you have a circular reference somewhere else in the sheet?

Please post a sample sheet showing the circ ref
Of course, to avoid the volatile function INDIRECT you could also sue =INDEX(C:C,D3)

Thanks for your help, xor and Pecoflyer.

Bottom line first: I think I've discovered a new way to fix problems in Excel: simply *ask* for help and the problem goes away!

More discussion: I'd been living with or trying to fix this problem for a couple of weeks. Xor, Excel claimed I had any number of circular references. For example, if I deleted the contents of cell M8 in my example, then Excel would say I had a circular reference somewhere else, and if I deleted the contents of that cell (which was *not* a circular reference) it would claim there was a circular reference in yet a third place, and so on.

My Excel file had several sheets, so I tried copying and pasting the contents of the sheet where all the problems were alleged to have occurred into a new Excel spreadsheet, but again got the circular reference problem.

However this morning (after rebooting) when I opened the spreadsheet in response to your suggestions, the problem was gone! I have no idea what changed. I'd made a number of changes searching for the root of the problem, but - I think! - reversed them all.

So again, thanks for the help. Pecoflyer, using INDEX might be a better approach than INDIRECT - I'll look into it.

I can't even count how many times this has happened to me... Or I'll only be able to think of the solution after I've posted the question...

Poincaré had some interesting thoughts about this way of solving problems