>i hope i won't get in trouble by using this forum to try and solve an excel problem. if i am offending anyone, please accept my appologies.
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>i need to make a cell number a variable and hope i can explain it clearly. here goes... to produce a result in a cell, i need to take the number in another cell, which will always vary, and add that number to a column letter to make a new cell reference. for instance, say that cell A1 will vary. the number in A1 will be used to reference a row in column B which contains the answer i need in cell C1. if A1=6 then the cell containing the answer i need is B6. normally the formula in C1 would be =B6, but as i said, the number part will vary. how do i add the number in A1 to '=B' in the formula in C1?
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>many thanx!
>john

No you don't get into trouble when you ask here. At worst we shoot you :)

Now as I understand 'B' is fixed (that might vary too). B column is 2nd so we'll use 2 for that :
address(A1,2)
means give me the cell address whose row number is in A1 and column is 2 (B).
Now you have the address you need to get value pointed to by address. Indirect() does that. So your end formula is :

=indirect(address(A1,2))

Cetin