Reference Specific Row in Named Range within another Named Range

Question

I'm writing a spreadsheet to keep track of a small business' financials. They operate a few Rooms for rent, and the structure of the document is made so that each sheet holds a year's worth of booking for all the rooms.

Essentially, each row is defines a specific date, while each rooms spans a few columns (reason is that they don't just want to track whether or not a room is booked, but also record names of clients & other remarks), among which the daily calculated income (some factors alter the daily rate each room will generate).

So this is all fine and dandy, and I've created named ranges for each month of the year, and for each room.

For example, rows 6:36 will represent the month of January, while columns C:I will represent Room 1. Room 2 will span J:P and so forth.

Now, in another sheet, I wanted to make a dashboard which lists the earning for each room, per month. It's a very simple table with 12 rows (one for each month) and 10 columns (1 for each room) where I planned to sum up all the earnings.

So my issue is that I can't find a way to retrieve a specific column of a named range for a room ('vertical named range'), which is also limited in a named range for a month ('horizontal named range'). I had read about using ARRAYFORMULA(INDEX(named_range, ,wished_column)) but that only works for a single named range. My knowledge of these two functions being non-existent, I didn't manage to extend it to a 2-named-range version...

(I mean I did try something along the lines of ARRAYFORMULA(INDEX(January, , INDEX(Room1, , 3))) but that didn't work)

So because there isn't a one-to-one relation from the Dashboard cells to the Rooms cells, my current only solution is to manually reference everything, which you'll understand is inefficient and time-consuming...

My question, in fine, is: How can I retrieve a range that results of the intersection of 2 (or more) named ranges ? Once I have that resulting range, I know it will be very easy to use INDEX().

Answer 1

Define a named range Base as

A:Z

Define a range named Horizontal as

6:36

Define a range named Vertical as

C:I

Then the intersection of the vertical and horizontal ranges is given by:

index(Base,row(Horizontal),COLUMN(Vertical)):index(Base,row(Horizontal)+rows(Horizontal)-1,COLUMN(Vertical)+columns(Vertical)-1)

This can be verified by using it in a function e.g.

=countblank(index(Base,row(Horizontal),COLUMN(Vertical)):index(Base,row(Horizontal)+rows(Horizontal)-1,COLUMN(Vertical)+columns(Vertical)-1))

gives the result 7 * 31 = 217 in my sheet because I haven't filled in any of the cells.

The Offset version of this would be:

=countblank(offset(A1,row(Horizontal)-1,COLUMN(Vertical)-1):offset(A1,row(Horizontal)+rows(Horizontal)-2,COLUMN(Vertical)+columns(Vertical)-2))

or more simply:

=countblank(offset(A1,row(Horizontal)-1,COLUMN(Vertical)-1,rows(Horizontal),COLUMNS(Vertical)))

So this works well in OP's case where you have two fully overlapping ranges like this:

---

Partial Overlap

Suppose you have two partially overlapping ranges like this:

You can use a variation on the standard overlap formula (This is one of the early references to it as used with a date range)

max(start1,start2) to min(end1,end2)

So the previous formula becomes

=countblank(index(Base,max(row(index(Partial1,1,1)),row(index(Partial2,1,1))),max(COLUMN(index(Partial1,1,1)),column(index(Partial2,1,1)))):
index(Base,min(row(index(Partial1,1,1))+rows(Partial1)-1,row(index(Partial2,1,1))+rows(Partial2)-1),min(COLUMN(index(Partial1,1,1))+columns(Partial1)-1,column(index(Partial2,1,1))+columns(Partial2)-1)))

and the offset version is

=countblank(offset(A1,max(row(offset(Partial1,0,0)),row(offset(Partial2,0,0)))-1,max(COLUMN(offset(Partial1,0,0)),column(offset(Partial2,0,0)))-1):
offset(A1,min(row(offset(Partial1,0,0))+rows(Partial1)-2,row(offset(Partial2,0,0))+rows(Partial2)-2),min(COLUMN(offset(Partial1,0,0))+columns(Partial1)-2,column(offset(Partial2,0,0))+columns(Partial2)-2)))

I have tested this on ranges C2:F10 and D3:G11 which gives the result 24 as expected.

However, if there is no overlap, this can still give a non-zero result, so a suitable test needs adding to the formula:

=if(and(max(row(index(Partial1,1,1)),row(index(Partial2,1,1)))<=min(row(index(Partial1,1,1))+rows(Partial1)-1,row(index(Partial2,1,1))+rows(Partial2)-1),
max(column(index(Partial1,1,1)),column(index(Partial2,1,1)))<=min(column(index(Partial1,1,1))+columns(Partial1)-1,column(index(Partial2,1,1))+columns(Partial2)-1)),"Overlap","No overlap")

Perhaps the best approach in Google Sheets is to go back to the full version of the Offset call OFFSET(cell_reference, offset_rows, offset_columns, [height], [width]) . Although this is rather long, it will return a #Value! error if there is no overlap:

=Countblank(offset(A1,
max(row(offset(Partial1,0,0)),row(offset(Partial2,0,0)))-1,
max(COLUMN(offset(Partial1,0,0)),column(offset(Partial2,0,0)))-1,
min(row(offset(Partial1,0,0))+rows(Partial1),row(offset(Partial2,0,0))+rows(Partial2))-max(row(offset(Partial1,0,0)),row(offset(Partial2,0,0))),
min(COLUMN(offset(Partial1,0,0))+columns(Partial1),column(offset(Partial2,0,0))+columns(Partial2))-max(COLUMN(offset(Partial1,0,0)),column(offset(Partial2,0,0)))
))

Notes

Why did I have to introduce some more indexes (indices?) in the second formula to make it work? Because if you use the row function with a range in an array context, you get an array of row numbers which isn't what I want. As it happens, in the first formula you are not using it in an array context, so you just get the first row and column of the given range which is fine. In the second formula, Max and Min try to evaluate all the rows in the array, which gives the wrong answer, so I have used Index(range,1,1) to force it to look only at the top left hand corner of each range. The other thing is that both index and offset return a reference, so it is valid to use the construct Index(...):Index(...) or Offset(...):Offset(...) to define a new range.

I have also tested the above in Excel (where as mentioned the Index version would be preferable). In this case Base would be set to $1:$1048576.

Although in Excel you have the Intersect Operator (single space) so it's not necessary to use an Index or Offset formula at all e.g. the first example above would simply be:

=COUNTBLANK(Vertical Horizontal)

and if there is no overlap the formula returns a #NULL! error.

Answer 2

"I've created named ranges for each month of the year, and for each room. For example, rows 6:36 will represent the month of January, while columns C:I will represent Room 1. Room 2 will span J:P and so forth."

What I suggest is that if "January" is defined for columns C to whatever (the last column of the last room), then that's all you need.

You haven't shown us the layout of the dashboard. But let's assume that at the very least you're interested in the income generated by each room.

=query({January},"select sum(Col3)   label sum(Col3)'' ")

In this image, the range called "January" is highlighted. Note that it does NOT include the header. Note also that it can be many columns wide; in this example, I've just made up a few columns, but your range should cover all the columns for rooms 1 to n.

Syntax: QUERY(data, query, [headers])

Data: This formula queries the range called "January". That range can be on the same sheet, on on another sheet (such as your Dashboard). Reminder: in this screenshot, "my version of "January" is highlighted.

Query to count Number of People: "select sum(Col3) label sum(Col3)'' "

Query to sum the income earned: "select count(Col2) label count(Col2)'' "

Col2 & Col4 = Number of People for Room#1 and Room#2 respectively.

Col3 & Col5 = Income for Room#1 and Room#2 respectively.
[headers]: You can ignore them.

This formula delivers just the value of the query; even though it includes a "label", the label will not print.

Modify and adapt these formulae to create the other information required for your Dashboard.