Prevent excel updating cell referene with new location

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this should be super basic but I can't figure it out.

If I have a series of numbers in A1:A10. And in B1 i have [=A1], B2 [=A2] etc. Simple cell reference.

My problem is that when I select A1:A10 and move them down to A2:A11, the formulas in column B update to reflect the new location. What I want is the reference to be permanently on A1:A10.

I've tied =$A$1, but that too updates to $A$2 when I shift the cells.

How do I break the lock on the values?

1 Answers

It is possible to achieve this using the INDIRECT formula, like this:

B1: =INDIRECT("A1")
B2: =INDIRECT("A2")
...

The references are not updated because they are strings.

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