If you are an Excel user and have never heard the term "Volatile functions' I am here to tell you don't worry, in fact most Excel users if they are honest would have never hear of them either. well lets put that to bed, because you are about to learn something that is very significant to how you will use excel in the future.
What are Volatile functions?
Volatile functions in Excel are those functions that recalculate every time a value is entered in a cell in any open workbook. This function will then make any formulas become volatile when used. To make it even worse any depended calculation precedent volatile will also become volatile.
It's quite possible to have a worksheet or even whole workbook that is completely volatile purely because of one function.
So what is the big deal with Volatility in Excel
a few volatile cells, say a hundred or so is not really a problem, however as this cells increase and you reach a thousand or so cells have t them you will evidence of them because your device your are using will start to slow don and lag and generally become unpredictable every time you press the "Enter" key.
This will gradually make you workbook vulnerable to corruption, and you may find the workbook keeps closing and having to auto recover.
What are the volatile functions?
Here they are, these bad boys will hurt your Excel workbooks if you don't take care:
- CELL
- INDIRECT
- INFO
- NOW
- OFFSET
- RAND
- RANDARRAY
- RANDBETWEEN
- TODAY