Section: Spreadsheet Concepts
...Subsection: Ranges

Any rectangular group of cells is called a range. Ranges are useful in various formulas that can work on a large number of cells at a time (e.g., the sum function, which adds up the values in all the cells in a given range).

Ranges are defined by giving their upper-left-hand corner cell address followed by a colon on the lower-right-hand-corner cell address.

Sometimes you will see ranges with .. between the cells: EG (A1..A10), (B5..C9).

A1:A10

The first ten cells in column A

A1:D1

The first four cells in row 1

A1:B3

The first three cells of columns A and B (or the first two cells of each of the first three rows, depending on how you look at it).

B1:B1

A very small range -- just the one cell, B1 -- but still valid and still useful.