How to use a cell value as a sheet name (INDIRECT)
✓ Verified in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3Pull from whichever tab a cell names — a dashboard that switches months by typing the tab name.
The formula
| App | Formula | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Excel | =INDIRECT(A1&"!B2") | A1 holds the sheet name as text. Quote names with spaces: =INDIRECT("'"&A1&"'!B2"). |
| Google Sheets | =INDIRECT(A1&"!B2") | Identical. |
| LibreOffice Calc | =INDIRECT(A1&".B2") | LibreOffice's native A1 syntax uses a dot; or force Excel-style with INDIRECT(ref,1). |
How it works
INDIRECT turns a text string into a live reference, so building "Feb"&"!B2" and feeding it to INDIRECT reads B2 from the Feb tab — change A1 to "Mar" and the same formula reads the March tab instead. It powers month-switching dashboards and roll-ups over many identically-structured sheets. Two cautions: INDIRECT is volatile (recalculates constantly, slow in bulk) and its references don't auto-adjust when you insert rows/columns on the target sheet. LibreOffice's native syntax uses a dot (A1&".B2"), a real gotcha when porting. Verified by reading B2 from a real named tab.
Verified, not just documented
We ran =INDIRECT(A1&"!B2") in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 (headless, with forced recalculation) and it returned 555 — exactly the expected result. Every formula here is confirmed by actually executing it.