Excel HYPERLINK Function

What is the Excel HYPERLINK function?

The Microsoft Excel HYPERLINK function is used to help return a Hyperlink from a specific destination as well as a “friendly name”. You can make use of the Excel HYPERLINK function to establish a clickable Hyperlink with the given formula. Also, the Excel HYPERLINK function can also be used to build links to pages on the Internet, locations of workbooks, or files that have been stored on network servers.

Formula

=HYPERLINK(link_location, [friendly_name])

Explanation

• link_location – path to the page or file to be opened when clicked. This should be a cell reference, e.g. C3.
• friendly_name – [optional] The link text that would be displayed in a cell. This would be returned in as clickable hyperlink in blue color.

Example

How to use the Excel HYPERLINK function?

There are two items on the spreadsheet that should be converted to a clickable Hyperlink, one is a web page and the other is the file. Let’s start by converting the web page in cell C3 into a clickable Hyperlink.

Let’s follow a step-by-step guideline below:

1. Open the working spreadsheet containing cells for the friendly name, Target, and cells where the clickable hyperlink would be generated to.

Figure1. Sample spreadsheet

2. Click on the cell where the hyperlink would be displayed (D3) and insert the formula =HYPERLINK(C3,B3). This is because cell C3 contains our Target link to build a hyperlink from and B3 has the friendly_name.

Figure2. Click on the cell and insert the formula

3. Press Enter on your keyboard to display the clickable hyperlink in blue.

Figure3. Press ENTER

4. Next up, we create a hyperlink from a file, a worksheet, and a friendly_name. Insert the formula =HYPERLINK(C4, B4) and press Enter.

C4 contains the target and B4 houses the friendly name.

Figure4. Final spreadsheet

Notes

*Link_location can be supplied as a cell reference that contains the link path or as a text string. If it is supplied as a text string, the text should be in “quotation marks”.

*If you don’t supply the function with a friendly_name, the HYPERLINK function will display link_location as the friendly_name.

*In summary, the location can be any of the following:

• A cell reference or a named range
• A path to a file:
  • has been stored on a local drive
  • stored on a server using a Universal Naming Connection (UNC),
  • To a specific location on the Internet or an Intranet in the URL format.