Formula Auditing

Formula Auditing helps you understand cell dependencies by drawing arrows between cells. This is useful for debugging complex formulas and tracing how data flows through your spreadsheet.

Features

Trace Precedents

Shows which cells feed into the currently selected cell's formula.

1. Select a cell that contains a formula.
2. Run Formulas > Trace Precedents from the menu bar.
3. Blue arrows are drawn from each referenced cell to the selected cell, with a dot at the source.

For example, if cell C1 contains =A1+B1, tracing precedents will draw blue arrows from A1 and B1 to C1.

Trace Dependents

Shows which cells depend on the currently selected cell.

1. Select any cell.
2. Run Formulas > Trace Dependents from the menu bar.
3. Red arrows are drawn from the selected cell to every cell whose formula references it.

This uses the internal dependency graph to find all direct dependents.

Clear Arrows

Remove all auditing arrows from the grid by running Formulas > Clear Arrows.

How It Works

• Arrows are rendered as SVG elements overlaid on the grid.
• Each arrow includes a colored arrowhead marker (blue for precedents, red for dependents).
• A small filled circle marks the source end of each arrow.
• Arrows are non-interactive (pointer-events are disabled) so they do not interfere with normal cell selection and editing.

Limitations

• Trace Precedents extracts cell references directly from the formula text using pattern matching. References inside function names or strings may produce false matches on unusual formulas.
• Trace Dependents relies on the dependency graph, which tracks direct formula references. Indirect dependencies through volatile functions are not shown.
• Arrows are cleared automatically when a new trace operation is started.