After reading the last post, explaining on how to create a linked list using Excel data Tables, I am getting a lot of mails asking about creating dependent list using Indirect function. We will see today how to create a dependent list in Excel data validation using Indirect function. This is a very short and quick tutorial when the list is very small and does not contains any duplicates. If the list contains duplicate and lot of items , its suggested to use the method explained for avoiding the duplicates in Excel data validation.

This tutorial explains how to create a linked list in Excel. Linked list or a depended list means you have drop down list where one drop down depends on the value of the other. We need to restrict the values based on the value selected from the first list. Here I have attempted to create a linked list  using Excel tables.  There are other ways for creating Linked list , for e.g. using Indirect function. But the disadvantage is that when the database runs in to a large number of lines you will find it difficult to add each one two different names and also creating new names for each combination. Also explains how to avoid duplicate values in a data validation. Don’t miss this one…