Calc Guide

Figure 130: Reference Operator for a range
In the upper left corner of Figure 130 the reference A1:D12 is shown,
corresponding to the cells included in the drag operation with the
mouse to highlight the range.
Examples
A2:B4 Reference to a rectangle range with 6 cells, 2
column width × 3 row height. When you click on
the reference in the formula in the input line, a
border indicates the rectangle.
(A2:B4):C9 Reference to a rectangle range with cell A2 top
left and cell C9 bottom right. So the range
contains 24 cells, 3 column width × 8 row
height.
Sheet1.A3:Sheet3.D4 Reference to a cuboid range with 24 cells, 4
column width × 2 row height × 3 sheets depth.
When you enter B4:A2 or A4:B2 directly, then Calc will turn it to
A2:B4. So the left top cell of the range is left of the colon and the
bottom right cell is right of the colon. But if you name the cell B4 for
example with '_start' and A2 with '_end', you can use _start:_end
without any error.
Calc can not reference a whole column of unspecified length via A:A or
a whole row via 1:1 yet as you might know from other spreadsheet
programs. See Issue 20495.
Chapter 7 Using Formulas and Functions 187