Precedents:
It is a Excel method which shows relationship between formulas using arrow objects. This method requires a valid formula in a cell or range to show the relationship else excel will prompt warning.
- Select the cell that contains the formula for which you want to find precedent cells.
- To display a tracer arrow to each cell that directly provides data to the active cell, on the Formulas tab, in the Formula Auditing group, click Trace Precedents .

Look at the formula highlighted in circle above and see the trace points which is indicating current cell refers to three cells and builds a formula. Let’s see how we can show Trace Precedents using code in excel?
Prerequisites:
- Visual Studio 2015 or above having Microsoft Office for Developer Tool installed
- Create Excel Addin in C# code style (Visual Studio Tools for Office)
- Create a ribbon designer and put button
C# code example:
private void btnTracePrecedents_Click(object sender, RibbonControlEventArgs e) { //Get current selection excel.Range oRange = Globals.ThisAddIn.Application.Selection; //Get worksheet reference excel.Worksheet oWorksheet = Globals.ThisAddIn.Application.ActiveSheet; //check if selection has formula because trace precedents works only on formula cells if (Globals.ThisAddIn.Application.WorksheetFunction.IsFormula(oRange)) { oRange.ShowPrecedents(); } }
VB.Net code example:
Private ShowPrecedents_Click(sender As Object, e As RibbonControlEventArgs) Handles ShowPrecedents.Click 'Bind Range object from selection Dim oRange As excel.Range oRange=Globals.ThisAddIn.Application.Selection 'check if selection has formula because trace precedents works only on formula cells if Globals.ThisAddIn.Application.WorksheetFunction.IsFormula(oRange) Then oRange.ShowPrecedents() End If End Sub
VBA code example:
Public Sub ShowPrecedents() Selection.ShowPrecedents End Sub
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