Referencing a Worksheet Name

My Excel Toolbox includes the following function to return a sheet's name using its position (even if it is hidden or very hidden):
    =NameOfSheet([Position], [Absolute])
Position is the location of the sheet in the workbook or 0 (default) for the current worksheet.
If Absolute is FALSE (default), Position is relative to the current worksheet; therefore, NameOfSheet(-1) refers to the sheet on the left.
If Absolute is TRUE, Position is the absolute location of the sheet in the workbook (base-1); therefore, NameOfSheet(3,TRUE) refers to the 3rd sheet.
Notice Excel's SHEET function returns the absolute position of a sheet, and the SHEETS function returns the number of sheets (including hidden or very hidden).
My Excel Toolbox also includes the following function to return information about Target (a cell or range); default Target is the formula's cell:
    =NameOf([This], [Target])
The first parameter This can be "sheet" (or "worksheet"), "book" (or "workbook"), "path" (or "filepath"), "app" (or "application"), "caption" (or "titlebar"), "statusbar", "user", "organization", "printer", "computer", "?" (or "help"), or the name of an environment variable (like "TEMP"). Default value is "sheet" (or "worksheet"); therefore, NameOf() will return the name of the formula cell's worksheet.
The NameOf function is similar to Excel's CELL and INFO functions, but perhaps more useful. In particular, CELL("filename") is blank ("") if the workbook is new and unsaved. (See the Tip's caveat.) And CELL("filename") returns the "wrong" result if another open workbook is active. NameOf does not have these issues.
Both NameOfSheet and NameOf are Volatile functions; therefore, they will update if a name is changed. (See JMG's comment below.)
See https://sites.google.com/view/MyExcelToolbox/

Try putting the function "=GET.CELL(62,Sheet1!$A$1)" in the Name Manager with name e.g. "SheetName", then call that function in a cell. It will return the workbook name and sheet name in the cell.

Note that the function GET.CELL can NOT be called directly in the worksheet, only through the Name Manager. It does allow to get dozens of "attributes" or "properties" of a cell .... a hidden gem

With the advent of =TEXTAFTER think this is now a lot simpler for the current sheet the formula is on.
=TEXTAFTER(CELL("filename"),"]")

I find the Function option doesn't update the cell when I change the sheetname. If I add =Tabname(?) to another cell, it shows the new and correct sheetname, however, any previously populated cells are not updated.

Hello, I was finally able to get this to work, but no I'm wondering how I can click/drag this formula to pull the next successively named worksheet/tab.

So, if I get it to return Sheet1 in A1, can the formula be modified to return Sheet2 in A2, and so on.

Allen,

When I copy your user defined function code into a module in my personal workbook, so it can be used with any open workbook, and then try to call that function in another workbook, I simply get a =NAME? error. If I copy the code into the workbook that I'm trying to use it in, it works fine. Is there a way the function can work in any open workbook?

Thank you!

Gary

A simpler formula to do this is:

RIGHT(CELL("filename",$A$1),LEN(CELL("filename",$A$1))-FIND("]",CELL("filename",$A$1)))

when placed on the worksheet to get the name of.

I have used this method of identifying sheet names for years by populating cell A-1 of each sheet with it's own name function. I can then reference the sheet's A-1 cell to get the name - no problem if someone changes the sheet name. Use this in conjunction with Indirect/Address, Hyperlink etc. Also use it to define dynamic range names - which I use in VBA rather than hard coded references.

Is there a way to use either this function or the user-defined function within a VLOOKUP to identify the tab within the table_array parameter?

I am referencing a worksheet name as a cell location in a formula. I can get it to work when the worksheet doesn't have a hyphen, but if it has a hyphen, it doesn't work. Example I have a sheet named summary, I have retrieved all the other worksheet names in cell C1-c150 on Summary worksheet. I want to retrieve the information in cell b4 in all the worksheets and list them in column D1-150. I am having trouble in where the apostrophes go. INDIRECT(C11&"!$b$4") works if I take the apostrophes out.

Please guide me how to creat index sheet with the help of buttons in Balace sheet

Hi There,

In line with Barry's recommendation on using CodeName, I am trying to use it to reference from a hyperlink, rather than relying on the sheet names or index. Is there a way to do that?

Thank you
KC

Bryan,

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. Your lengthy, all-in-one formula does exactly what I was hoping to accomplish. I enjoy reading your contributions here, especially now that I'm a direct beneficiary.

John, you can fix your hyperlinks by using the Hyperlink formula. For ease of reading the formulas**, I'm going to assume you have a cell with the file name called FileName* and a cell with the sheet to reference called SheetRef (this uses Allen's formula, so that when you change the name of the sheet, the cell value will change to reflect).

Then for your hyperlink, use the following formula:

=HYPERLINK("[" & FileName & "]" & SheetRef & "!A1",SheetRef)

When you change the name of the referenced sheet, both the hyperlink and the link text will update accordingly. I'm sure there are ways to make the formulas involved more elegant, but my brain hurts right now and I know these will work regardless :)

* There's another tip about it here somewhere, but you can find this with the following formula if you need it to be dynamic:

=MID(CELL("filename",A1),FIND("[",CELL("filename",A1))+1,FIND("]",CELL("filename",A1))-FIND("[",CELL("filename",A1))-1)

If you want to put everything into one cell, the formula simply becomes much longer:

=HYPERLINK("[" & MID(CELL("filename",A1),FIND("[",CELL("filename",A1))+1,FIND("]",CELL("filename",A1))-FIND("[",CELL("filename",A1))-1) & "]" & MID(CELL("filename",Test3!A1),FIND("]",CELL("filename",Test3!A1))+1,LEN(CELL("filename",Test3!A1))) & "!A1",MID(CELL("filename",Test3!A1),FIND("]",CELL("filename",Test3!A1))+1,LEN(CELL("filename",Test3!A1))))

(Where "Test3" was the name of the sheet in question)

Using the CELL function avoids dealing with index numbers and allows for changing the names and order of the sheets.

The first example provided in this tip happens to use a default sheet name with an index number, but that's incidental. Enter the formula as given, then change the name of Sheet4 to Travel Expenses, for example. The formula you entered will be updated to read

=MID(CELL("filename",'Travel Expenses'!A1),FIND("]",CELL("filename",'Travel Expenses'!A1))+1,LEN(CELL("filename",'Travel Expenses'!A1)))

Starting out with the standardized default names simplifies replicating the formula to generate a list of all the sheet names, a list that will automatically update as you rename sheets.

Care needs to be exercised when using the index number as this reflects the order of the sheets as can be seen along the bottom of the Excel window. Moving the position of a sheet changes its index number.

A better method is to use the worksheets 'code name'.

I use a table of contents sheet with hyperlinks to the other sheets in my workbook. The CELL function provides one way to generate a list of default sheet names that stays current as I rename and delete sheets to my heart's content. The formula appears to rewrite itself to reflect name changes.

But hyperlinks to other sheets are always stymied when I rename a tab. Is there some way to get them to learn from the CELL function? (Some way that doesn't involve a macro since Excel 2008 for Mac doesn't support VBA.)

As an aside, the MID function doesn't need to calculate the length of the filename when capturing everything to the right. The LEN function can be replaced with a large constant such as 999.

I can't figure out what this would be used for.