Software & Apps > Google Apps How to Use Google Sheets to Reference Data From Another Sheet Easily import data from other tabs and spreadsheets By Ryan Dube Ryan Dube Facebook Twitter Writer University of Maine Ryan Dube is a freelance contributor to Lifewire and former Managing Editor of MakeUseOf, senior IT Analyst, and an automation engineer. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on December 18, 2021 Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Google Apps Sheets Docs Slides What to Know Place the cursor in the cell where you want the data to go.Pull data from another sheet: Type = and select the cell in the source sheet to bring that data into the original sheet.Pull from a different file: Type =IMPORTRANGE("URL","Sheet1!C2"), replace URL with the link to the other file, followed by the cell reference. This article discusses how to reference data from another sheet in Google Sheets. How to Pull Cell Data From Another Sheet The most common reason people want to pull data from another sheet in Google Sheets is when those other tables are lookup tables. For example, one sheet might hold all the products you sell along with their UPC codes and unit prices, while another sheet might contain a log of your sales. To calculate the total sale, you'll need to pull pricing data from the product sheet. Here's how: In the original sheet where you want to pull data into, place your cursor in the cell where you'd like the data to go. Type = (the equal sign) into the cell. Select the second sheet and, then, the cell that contains the data you want to bring into the original sheet. Press Enter finish. This will bring the cell data you selected into the first spreadsheet. The final formula in this case is =Sheet2!C2. 'Sheet2' is the name of the sheet where the data comes from. This method is good for referencing individual cell data from a different spreadsheet into an original one. Pull Cell Data From a Different Spreadsheet File You also can reference data from a different spreadsheet file with the IMPORTRANGE formula. Before you can use the IMPORTRANGE formula, you'll need the URL link to the Google Sheets file where you want to reference data. Highlight and copy the URL link to the end of the long code before the last forward slash (/) in the URL. In the original sheet where you want to pull data to, place the cursor in the destination cell and type: =IMPORTRANGE("URL" Be sure to replace URL in this formula with the URL you want to reference. Follow the quotes after the URL with a comma (,), then type the name of the sheet and the cell you want to get data from. In this example you'd enter: =IMPORTRANGE("URL","Sheet1!C2"). Again, URL would be a full URL. We're just keeping it short for example purposes. Press Enter. You'll see that the data from the other Sheets spreadsheet file is pulled into this spreadsheet. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. Thank you for signing up! Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit