Cells, Rows, and Columns Explained

A spreadsheet is just a big grid of little boxes called cells. Each one can hold a number, text, a date, or a formula. Think of graph paper that does math for you.

Columns are the up-and-down strips, labeled with letters across the top: A, B, C, and so on. After Z, they double up as AA, AB, AC.

Rows run side to side, labeled with numbers down the left: 1, 2, 3. Row 1 sits at the very top, and a sheet can hold over a million rows.

A cell is the box where a column and a row cross. Where column B meets row 3 is one exact spot that no other cell shares.

Every cell has its own address, just like a house: the column letter, then the row number. So column A, row 1 is A1.

To read an address, find the letter first, then the number. So B2 is column B, row 2. A cell's address never changes, no matter what you type in it.

The Name Box in the top-left corner always shows the address of the cell you've selected. Click any cell and watch it update.

The cell you click on is the active cell, marked with a bold outline. Whatever you type lands there, so always check which cell is active first.

Here's a tiny product list: names go down column A, prices down column B. Each column holds one kind of data, and each row is one product.

Letters and numbers let formulas point at exact cells. A clean grid, one data type per column, makes =B1+B2+B3 easy to write and read.

The top row usually holds headers that label each column, like "Product" and "Price." They keep your sheet readable for humans.

Test your understanding of how the grid is labeled.

Quick recap: columns use letters, rows use numbers, and a cell is where they meet. Every cell has an address like A1, shown in the Name Box.