HYPERLINK

What it does

HYPERLINK(link_location, [friendly_name])

HYPERLINK(link_location,[friendly_name]) creates a clickable destination with a displayed label. If no label is supplied the link location is displayed. A destination can be a web URL or a desktop-supported file/workbook location.

Try it

=HYPERLINK("https://handbook.dnacalc.com/","Function handbook") displays “Function handbook” as the link label. Creating the formula does not mean that the destination has been fetched or that navigation has succeeded.

Quirks

Excel for the web supports URL destinations only. A nonexistent or inaccessible location can fail when the user clicks; that is different from calculating the formula. An error-valued friendly name displays its error. Desktop file paths, workbook fragments and web URLs need distinct host navigation rules.

How to implement

Preserve the location and optional label as a host-visible hyperlink result or side channel. Use the location as label when the second argument is omitted, and propagate a supplied label’s worksheet error. A pure-value evaluator can reproduce a label without implementing navigation; report that capability separately. Do not perform an HTTP request simply to evaluate HYPERLINK. Apply the platform’s normal click/navigation behaviour at the host boundary.

Rust code

21 hyperlink_fn "HYPERLINK" (1, 2) [V "link_location", V "friendly_name"] |s, a, sv| { hyperlink(s, a) }

/// HYPERLINK: the friendly name as it is, or the link location.
fn hyperlink(site: &Site<'_>, a: &[CalcValue]) -> Step<CalcValue> {
    let location = text_arg(site, a, 0)?;
    match a.get(1) {
        Some(value) if !value.is_missing() => match value.core_ref() {
            CoreRef::Empty => Ok(CalcValue::number(0.0)),
            CoreRef::Array(_) | CoreRef::Reference(_) => Err(site.not_modelled(Some(1))),
            _ if value.callable_value().is_some() => Err(site.not_modelled(Some(1))),
            _ => Ok(value.clone()),
        },
        _ => Ok(CalcValue::text(location)),
    }
}

No implementation has been published with a Handbook test suite for this function.

Version differences

No same-input comparison between named Excel builds is recorded for this function here. The documented behaviour below is not a measurement of every Excel release.

Alternatives

WEBSERVICE retrieves data rather than making a link; ENCODEURL encodes text for URL construction.

Named variants

No named variants are recorded yet.