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Named Ranges

Excel's Name Manager allows you to assign names to cells or ranges of cells. Codcel reads these defined names from your workbook and uses them during transpilation.

How Codcel Handles Named Ranges

When you import an Excel workbook, Codcel extracts all defined names and resolves them to their cell references. If a formula uses a named range, Codcel replaces it with the actual cell reference during transpilation.

For example, if you define a name TaxRate pointing to cell B2, a formula like =Price * TaxRate is resolved to =Price * B2 before code generation.

Supported Named Range Types

Type Supported Notes
Single cell reference Yes e.g., TaxRate → Sheet1!$B$2
Cell range reference Yes e.g., Prices → Sheet1!$A$1:$A$100
Cross-sheet references Yes e.g., Config.Rate → Config!$B$2
Named constants Yes e.g., Pi → 3.14159
Named LAMBDAs Yes Including recursive LAMBDAs. See LAMBDA Support

Best Practices

  • Use descriptive names -- named ranges make your Excel workbook more readable and Codcel's generated code more maintainable
  • Avoid special characters -- stick to letters, numbers, and underscores in names for cleanest code generation
  • Keep scope simple -- workbook-scoped names are preferred over sheet-scoped names

See Also