REF Tracer

Find the source of #REF! errors in your Excel files.

What is this?

Ever had a spreadsheet full of #REF! errors and no idea where they started? This tool visualizes your Excel formulas as a graph and highlights the "patient zero" - the cell where the #REF! actually originated. By fixing this error you will fix all the child #REF! errors.

Features

• Single HTML file - no build step, no dependencies to install
• Under 500 lines - lightweight
• Drag & drop - just drop your .xlsx file
• Patient zero detection - find the root cause if all your #REF!
• Visual graph - see how formulas connect, looks pretty like below

Usage

1. Clone the repo or just copy index.html onto your computer
2. Open it in your browser
3. Drop an .xlsx file (you can test it out with test.xlsx and test-broken.xlsx)
4. Click around the graph to inspect cells
5. Yellow squares with red borders = patient zeros (the actual source of #REF!)

Node Colors

Follows investment banking guidelines:

• Black - Formula cell
• Blue - Hard-coded value cell (no formula)
• Green - Cross-sheet reference
• Red - External workbook reference
• Yellow square - Has #REF! error
• Yellow square + red border - Patient zero (this is what you're looking for)

Tech

Just three CDN scripts:

• SheetJS - Excel parsing
• Cytoscape.js - Graph visualization
• Tailwind CSS - Styling

Limitations

• Performance suffers above 5k nodes

License

MIT