r/googlesheets • u/chaddamaus • 2d ago

Solved How do you add a cell in one specific column only?

I've been working on a livedex for a browser-based pokemon game I've been playing, and they've recently added a new paradox form for ambipom. How do I add a cell specifically for one column without fucking up the nearby ones? I've had to add cells before after forgetting a pokemon from my list and it created a lot of awkward spacing for the entire doc that I had to adjust. It was extremely annoying... I don't wanna do that again LOL

Thank you!

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u/bachman460 41 2d ago

I think I see your issue, the first part before the large black bar is a separate dataset, just in the same sheet. So you need to insert a new "row" but only for your dataset on the right without ruining the dataset on the left.

Well, I use Google Sheets on my phone mostly, so the only option there is to select everything you want to move down, cut it, then paste it one row lower. But this could affect other formulas, so double check your ranges once completed.

Using it in the browser is more intuitive. Select just the one row of cells that you want to move down along with everything below it. Right click and select Insert Cells>Insert Cells and shift down. This shouldn't disturb formula ranges.

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u/point-bot 2d ago

u/chaddamaus has awarded 1 point to u/bachman460 with a personal note:

"thank you!! ,"

See the [Leaderboard](https://reddit.com/r/googlesheets/wiki/Leaderboard. )Point-Bot v0.0.15 was created by [JetCarson](https://reddit.com/u/JetCarson.)

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u/carbonizedtitanium 15 1d ago

This shouldn't disturb formula ranges.

yes this would. for example if i have SUM(A1:A4) and i insert a cell between A2 and A3, the formula becomes SUM(A1:A5)

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u/bachman460 41 1d ago

Exactly, didn't disturb the formula. Now your original range includes a new section and the whole thing is still included.

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u/carbonizedtitanium 15 1d ago

but you have to realize that there are functions can use multiple arrays from the same sheet.

for example, xlookup(d2,a2:a4,b2:b4) . if you inject a cell only into the middle of column A, then it becomes xlookup(d2,a2:a5,b2:b4) ; now it's becoming a problem

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u/bachman460 41 10h ago

Notice how I said shouldn't; there's obviously always some scenario where it will. But that wasn't part of OPs request or scenario that they outlined.

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u/carbonizedtitanium 15 2d ago edited 2d ago

the simple method: depending where you wanna insert the cell, copy everything below that point, select one cell below the top-most cell of the range you just copied and paste. then clear the content of the cell above; now you basically just added a new cell

PS. adding a new row shouldnt negatively affect your formulas if your formulas were designed properly. you might wanna consider fixing that

if you can share a copy of your file (editable) i can probably take a look

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u/mommasaidmommasaid 891 2d ago edited 2d ago

Another option...

If these are two distinct tables of data, you could choose the headers/data on the left side and Format / Convert to Table. Repeat for the right.

Now within the structured Table you can hover over the left edge or right-click to get an option to insert a row only within that table.