INDIRECT

Supported, behaves as documented

Category: Lookup and reference · Last tested 2026-09-01

Real compatibility results for the INDIRECT function: executed in Excel for the web, Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc, with desktop Excel behavior from Microsoft’s official documentation (we do not run desktop Excel — Excel for the web is a different application and is executed separately). Syntax and links to that documentation are below.

Support matrix

Engine	Documented	Live-tested	Verdict
Excel (desktop)	Yes	No — documented only	n/a
Excel for the web	—	Yes (recalc, 2026-09-01)	Supported, behaves as documented
Google Sheets	Yes	Yes (Drive import, 2026-08-29)	Supported, behaves as documented
LibreOffice Calc	Yes	Yes (25.8.7.3, 2026-08-28)	Supported, behaves as documented

LibreOffice version history

We executed the same test cases under each LibreOffice release to show exactly when INDIRECT’s support changed — not documentation claims, real results.

LibreOffice version	Verdict	Tested
24.2.0.3	Supported, behaves as documented	2026-08-29
24.8.7.2	Supported, behaves as documented	2026-08-29
25.2.0.3	Supported, behaves as documented	2026-08-29
25.8.7.3	Supported, behaves as documented	2026-08-28

Google Sheets: 1 case inconclusive. Our corpus is an Excel-authored .xlsx, and Google’s importer does not map every OOXML storage prefix (_xlfn., _xlfn._xlws., _xlpm.) — nor does the .xlsx export preserve full float precision or a blank result. Where the disagreement is explained by that round trip we report it as inconclusive rather than as a Sheets behavior. Google documents this function, so the result is not evidence of missing support. See the methodology page for the full caveat and the planned re-run with plain function names.

Excel for the web: one case set aside as a round-trip artifact. The readback proves this cell became an unresolved external-workbook reference. The uploaded workbook contains no externalLinks part; the downloaded one contains two, targeting Nope and NotACell — the literal text arguments of the INDIRECT calls. Excel for the web read 'Nope'!B2 as a reference into a workbook named Nope and could not resolve it, which is why the cell holds 0 rather than #REF!, why ISERROR is FALSE and why ISREF is TRUE. Whether the blank comes from the declined “trust externally linked workbooks” prompt or from an unresolvable external evaluating empty in this engine, this run cannot tell — and both are facts about the link, not about the function. The value is published as it came back and no verdict is drawn from it.

Executed test cases

Excel for the web (executed 2026-09-01 via OneDrive recalculation)

These values come from Excel for the web, not from desktop Excel. They are two different implementations of the calculation engine, and this run measured only the web one: the corpus was uploaded to OneDrive as .xlsx, recalculated by Excel for the web on open, and downloaded again for readback. Excel for the web is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so the run is identified by its date. Where a value here disagrees with the Expected column — which is Microsoft’s documentation of the desktop product — we cannot tell you whether the web engine diverges from the desktop one or the documentation is wrong about both, because we do not run desktop Excel.

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=INDIRECT("A1")	Basic ref_text naming a cell literally	42	42	Matched
=INDIRECT("A"&2)	ref_text built dynamically by concatenating column letter and a row number	99	99	Matched
=INDIRECT("NotACell!!")	A ref_text string that isn't a valid cell reference in either A1 or R1C1 style -> #REF!	#REF!	#REF! Provenance https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/indirect-function-474b3a3a-8a26-4f44-b491-92b6306fa261 -- documents that an invalid ref_text returns the #REF! error value	Matched
=INDIRECT("R2C1",FALSE)	a1=FALSE switches ref_text parsing to R1C1 notation; R2C1 means row 2, column 1 = A2	7	7	Matched
=INDIRECT("Z50")	Referencing a genuinely blank cell returns 0, matching normal cell-reference behavior in a numeric context	0	0	Matched
=INDIRECT("'Nope'!B2")	ref_text names a sheet that does not exist in the workbook -> #REF!, the unguarded baseline for the IFERROR/ISERROR/ISREF guard cases in the sibling test files	0	#REF! Provenance https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/indirect-function-474b3a3a-8a26-4f44-b491-92b6306fa261 -- documents that ref_text which is not a valid reference returns the #REF! error value	Inconclusive

Google Sheets (executed 2026-08-29 via Drive import)

Google Sheets is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so this run is identified by its date. The corpus was imported to Drive as .xlsx, recalculated by Sheets, and exported back for readback.

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=INDIRECT("A1")	Basic ref_text naming a cell literally	42	42	Matched
=INDIRECT("A"&2)	ref_text built dynamically by concatenating column letter and a row number	99	99	Matched
=INDIRECT("NotACell!!")	A ref_text string that isn't a valid cell reference in either A1 or R1C1 style -> #REF!	#REF!	#REF! Provenance https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/indirect-function-474b3a3a-8a26-4f44-b491-92b6306fa261 -- documents that an invalid ref_text returns the #REF! error value	Matched
=INDIRECT("R2C1",FALSE)	a1=FALSE switches ref_text parsing to R1C1 notation; R2C1 means row 2, column 1 = A2	7	7	Matched
=INDIRECT("Z50")	Referencing a genuinely blank cell returns 0, matching normal cell-reference behavior in a numeric context		0	Inconclusive
=INDIRECT("'Nope'!B2")	ref_text names a sheet that does not exist in the workbook -> #REF!, the unguarded baseline for the IFERROR/ISERROR/ISREF guard cases in the sibling test files	#REF!	#REF! Provenance https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/indirect-function-474b3a3a-8a26-4f44-b491-92b6306fa261 -- documents that ref_text which is not a valid reference returns the #REF! error value	Matched

LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-08-28)

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=INDIRECT("A1")	Basic ref_text naming a cell literally	42	42	Matched
=INDIRECT("A"&2)	ref_text built dynamically by concatenating column letter and a row number	99	99	Matched
=INDIRECT("NotACell!!")	A ref_text string that isn't a valid cell reference in either A1 or R1C1 style -> #REF!	#REF!	#REF! Provenance https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/indirect-function-474b3a3a-8a26-4f44-b491-92b6306fa261 -- documents that an invalid ref_text returns the #REF! error value	Matched
=INDIRECT("R2C1",FALSE)	a1=FALSE switches ref_text parsing to R1C1 notation; R2C1 means row 2, column 1 = A2	7	7	Matched
=INDIRECT("Z50")	Referencing a genuinely blank cell returns 0, matching normal cell-reference behavior in a numeric context	0	0	Matched
=INDIRECT("'Nope'!B2")	ref_text names a sheet that does not exist in the workbook -> #REF!, the unguarded baseline for the IFERROR/ISERROR/ISREF guard cases in the sibling test files	#REF!	#REF! Provenance https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/indirect-function-474b3a3a-8a26-4f44-b491-92b6306fa261 -- documents that ref_text which is not a valid reference returns the #REF! error value	Matched

Docs & syntax

Excel (desktop): official documentation
Google Sheets: official documentation
LibreOffice Calc: official documentation

Related how-to recipes

Where INDIRECT behaves differently

IFERROR doesn't catch INDIRECT's #REF! in LibreOffice
=IFERROR(INDIRECT("'Nope'!B2"),"missing") returns #REF! instead of the fallback in every LibreOffice Calc build we ran - 24.2.0.3 through 25.8.7.3. Executed Google Sheets returns the fallback.