Question

I am using this Script in a google spreadsheet to add a new line:

var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var sheet = ss.getSheets()[0];
sheet.insertRowAfter(1);

The problem is that any formula referencing rows gets updated, for example

=A$2

becomes

=A$3

after the row insert. Is there a way to avoid this?
(By either changing the forumlas or the script.)

I understand the behaviour, the spreadsheet wants to keep all formulas pointing to the old cells – but it messes with my sums (these should always sum up the whole column from a$2:a$999 (a1 is the header). But those get updated to then sum up a$3:a$1000 (and so on) so they miss the new rows completely.

Answer 1

You can use =SUM(INDIRECT("A2"):INDIRECT("A999")) to sum those values. Spreadsheet will not touch those addresses because they are strings.