How to Replace a Formula with the Result in Microsoft Excel

When you edit any data in an Excel workbook, any Excel formula that uses that data will be updated immediately. This is because Excel is constantly updating its formulas, checking for changes that may affect its calculations.

However, as the workbook grows, Excel requires more time and memory to perform the calculations. Instead of watching Excel slow down and become unusable, you can substitute the formulas you are using with their results. This will speed up Excel for other tasks, as well as improve overall system performance and memory usage.

You can replace the formula entirely or replace part of it, allowing you to mix data that changes with data that remains static. If you want to replace a formula with the result in Excel, this is what you will have to do.

How to replace a formula with the result in Excel

Open your workbook and sheet in Microsoft Excel. Then follow these steps to use copy and paste to replace your formula:

1. Select the cell that contains the formula that you want to replace with the result.
2. Use the Copy action by right-clicking and selecting Copy or by clicking Copy in the Clipboard section of the tab Beginning.
3. With the cell still selected, use the action Special glue. You can right click and choose Special glue or click Paste> Paste Special in the Clipboard section of the tab Beginning.
4. In the Paste Special window, select Values.
5. Click on To accept.

At this point, select the cell – you should see only the result of the formula. You can confirm it by looking at the Formula bar at the top of the sheet.

Tip to save time: You can also convert your formula to your static result using the F9 key. Select the cell, place the cursor in the formula bar inside the formula and press F9.

How to replace part of a formula with the result in Excel

If you have a formula that uses more than one function, you may want to replace part of that formula with the result. For example, you may be using the function SUM for two cell ranges, but one of those cell ranges has data that never changes.

This allows you to replace this range of cells with a static value.

To replace part of a formula with static data:

1. Select the cell that contains the formula.
2. Go to the Formula bar and select the part of the formula that you want to replace with the static value.
   • Make sure to select all that part of the formula, including the arguments and parentheses.
     
3. Press F9. You should see the selected section of the formula change immediately to display the result.
4. Press Enter to apply the change.

Then select the cell. You should see the remaining part of the formula untouched in the Formula Bar, with a section replaced by a static value.

Using static values ​​for formulas in Excel

By replacing your formulas with their static results, you can reduce the time Excel takes to open and recalculate your workbook. If your formulas include references to cells that contain data that you don’t expect to change, the steps above should help you save system memory.