Self-reference for cell, column and row in worksheet functions

where F13 is the cell you need to reference:

=CELL("Row",F13)  yields 13; its row number

=CELL("Col",F13)  yields 6; its column number;  

=SUBSTITUTE(ADDRESS(1,COLUMN(F13)*1,4),"1","") yields F; its column letter

I don't see the need for Indirect, especially for conditional formatting.

The simplest way to self-reference a cell, row or column is to refer to it normally, e.g., "=A1" in cell A1, and make the reference partly or completely relative. For example, in a conditional formatting formula for checking whether there's a value in the first column of various cells' rows, enter the following with A1 highlighted and copy as necessary. The conditional formatting will always refer to column A for the row of each cell:

= $A1 <> ""

For a cell to self-reference itself:

INDIRECT(ADDRESS(ROW(), COLUMN()))

For a cell to self-reference its column:

INDIRECT(ADDRESS(1,COLUMN()) & ":" & ADDRESS(65536, COLUMN()))

For a cell to self-reference its row:

INDIRECT(ADDRESS(ROW(),1) & ":" & ADDRESS(ROW(),256))
or
INDIRECT("A" & ROW() & ":IV" & ROW())

The numbers are for 2003 and earlier, use column:XFD and row:1048576 for 2007+.

Note: The INDIRECT function is volatile and should only be used when needed.