Final Friday Fix: July 2018 Challenge

On the final Friday of each month, we’re going to set an Excel challenge for you to puzzle over so that you can get your “Excel fix”. Challenge your office colleagues to see who can solve the puzzle quickest. There’s no prizes at this stage, you’re playing for bragging rights only!

Can you count on your headings?

This month’s problem was actually asked by one of our clients. We realised it’s quite a common question so we thought we’d make it the subject of this month’s challenge.

The Challenge

It’s good practice to delineate between sections of a spreadsheet. It makes a model easier to follow and understand the calculation flow. Therefore, it’s recommended to include section headings (e.g. 1, 2, 3, …) and maybe subsection (e.g. 1.1, 1.2, …) and even subsubsection headings (e.g. 1.1.1, 1.1.2, …). Examples might look like the following (excluding all the content obviously!):

So here’s the challenge: can you create row headings, subheadings and subsubheadings so that when you copy the appropriate the row section / subsection / subsection banner so that the numbering will automatically calculate (as above)? For example, the subsection banner in row 8 was copied into rows 18, 26, 30 and 38 in the example above and everything should then calculate automatically. You should allow for numbering such as 4.103.17.

Sound easy? Have a go. We’ll publish one solution in Monday’s blog. Have a great weekend!