Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Accessing Dependent and Precedent Information.

Accessing Dependent and Precedent Information

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 28, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365


3

David rightly notes that Excel provides auditing tools (Trace Dependents and Trace Precedents) that are a very helpful way of keeping track of what is happening in large worksheets. However, the actual interface just lists out the cells in a small area, and David cannot easily copy out this list of cells to analyze and manipulate it. When he uses Trace Dependents on an important cell in a large worksheet, the small dialog box can contain several hundred references. David wonders if there is a relatively easy way of getting this information into a more usable format, like a blank worksheet or another workbook.

There is obviously no way to do this with native Excel commands, but you can create a macro that will extract the information you desire. The following macro will list the dependent cells for whatever cell is selected when you run the macro:

Sub ListDependents()
    Dim rArea As Range
    Dim rCell As Range
    Dim rDep As Range
    Dim lRow As Long
    Dim sCellAddr As String

    sCellAddr = ActiveCell.Address(False, False)
    On Error Resume Next
    Set rDep = ActiveCell.Dependents
    If rDep Is Nothing Then
        MsgBox sCellAddr & " has no dependents"
        Exit Sub
    End If

    On Error GoTo 0
    Worksheets.Add
    lRow = 1
    Cells(lRow, 1).Value = "Dependents for " & sCellAddr
    For Each rArea In rDep
        For Each rCell In rArea
            lRow = lRow + 1
            Cells(lRow, 1) = rCell.Address(False, False)
        Next
    Next
    Set rArea = Nothing
    Set rCell = Nothing
    Set rDep = Nothing
End Sub

When the macro is first run, it checks to see if there are any dependents for the cell. If there aren't, then you are notified, and the macro is exited. If there are dependents, then a new worksheet is added to the workbook and the dependents of the cell are added to the worksheet.

If you want the macro to instead list precedents, all you need to do is change the all instances of "Dependents" in the macro to "Precedents."

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8271) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Accessing Dependent and Precedent Information.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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Comments

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What is 8 - 6?

2023-03-02 09:38:46

Craig M Bower

@J. Woolley
Thank you.


2023-03-01 10:31:20

J. Woolley

https://excelribbon.tips.net/T008271_Accessing_Dependent_and_Precedent_Information.html

@Craig Bower
Yes. The ReportDents macro in My Excel Toolbox will trace direct precedents and dependents for each cell in the active sheet's Selection and report results in a separate '...dents' worksheet with each row including hyperlinks to the source cell and its precedent or dependent target range (which might be on a different worksheet or workbook). For example, if 'Sheet1'!$A$1 contains the formula
=SUM('Sheet2'!$B$1:$B$9)
then the '...dents' sheet will include hyperlinks to 'Sheet1'!$A$1 and its precedent range 'Sheet2'!$B$1:$B$9.
See https://sites.google.com/view/MyExcelToolbox/


2023-02-28 10:06:25

Craig Bower

I like the macro presented in this tip, but I note that it only will trace the dependents located on the worksheet of the selected cell. It does not list the dependents located on other worksheets of the workbook. Is there a way to list the dependents on other worksheets? Most of the time when I use the actual tracing interface, you are not able to read the entire traced cell name listed.


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