Parameteric Average Across Sheets in Excel

Question

I would like to do averaging across sheets. Assume that I have sheets named A,B,C and I want to average cell B12 over all sheets. I managed to find the formula (which works):

=AVERAGE(A:C!B12)

Now I would like to do it parametric, ie I want to put the name of the last sheet in cell B2 so when I add another sheet (sheet D), the only thing I need to do is to change B2 (because the averaging should now go from sheets A to D).

I've tried to use the INDIRECT function but for some reason it does not work.

=AVERAGE(INDIRECT("'A:"&$B$2&"'!"&B12))

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Typically you would put a blank worksheet named start before worksheet A and a blank worksheet named end after worksheet C.

=AVERAGE(start:end!B12)

Inserting a worksheet anywhere between start and end will adjust the result.

You can hide the blank worksheets but that can make it difficult to insert a new worksheet at the position before worksheet A or after worksheet C.