A function to display a formula that's defined within anot..

I need to discover whether there is a function which will retrieve the
FORMULA EXPRESSION that's held within another cell - for example, I'd
like to be able to write this expression in a cell:

=GETFORMULA(E4) //this would display the formula that's defined in cell
E4 as a string

Can anyone advise me on this? It would sure save me a heap of time!


- Clive Green

In article <1109798329.505852.213600.DeleteThis@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>,
"Clive Green" <email.DeleteThis@clivegreen.com> wrote:

 > I need to discover whether there is a function which will retrieve the
 > FORMULA EXPRESSION that's held within another cell - for example, I'd
 > like to be able to write this expression in a cell:
 >
 > =GETFORMULA(E4) //this would display the formula that's defined in cell
 > E4 as a string
 >
 > Can anyone advise me on this? It would sure save me a heap of time!
 >

You can do this most easily with a User Defined Function (UDF). If
you're not familiar with UDFs, you may want to see David McRitchie's

Getting Started with Macros and User Defined Functions
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/getstarted.htm" target="_blank">http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/getstarted.htm</a>

Put this in a regular code module in your workbook. Type Opt-F11 to
enter the VBE. Choose Insert/Module, and in the window that opens, paste
in

Public Function GetFormula(ByVal rng As Range) As String
GetFormula = rng(1).Formula
End Function<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->