When working with data tables, especially when the data is referenced multiple times, we can find potential errors by tracing dependents.

Take this worksheet as an example. The net profit in the table is calculated from the total amount of sales minus the cost of purchases. Normally, it is difficult to detect if the figures are misquoted.

If we want to check whether the total sales are correct, we can select the sales price in  cell F8,  head to the Formulas tab, and click the Trace Dependents button. Thus, arrows will appear in the table, indicating that the sales price in November is referenced by which cells of sales.

According to the arrows, we can clearly know that cell F8 is referenced by  cell C2, E2, G2, I2, and I3, but the sales price of November should correspond to the sales of November, while the cell I3 corresponds to the sales of December. At this time, to modify the wrongly referenced cells, we can change the sales price in cell F8, which is referenced by  cell I3, to the sales price in  cell F9.

If we want to remove the arrows, just click Remove Arrows.

In conclusion, dependents refer to cells referenced by other cells, and the Trace Dependents function can clearly indicate other cells that reference the data through the arrow symbol.