5.2 Nonrelocatable references

C-y relocates all cell-references in a pasted formula, while C-u C-y relocates none of the cell-references. What about mixed cases?

You can use

(symbol-value 'B3)

to make an absolute reference. The formula relocator skips over quoted things, so this will not be relocated when pasted or when rows/columns are inserted/deleted. However, B3 will not be recorded as a dependency of this cell, so this cell will not be updated automatically when B3 is changed.

The variables row and col are dynamically bound while a cell formula is being evaluated. You can use

(ses-cell-value row 0)

to get the value from the leftmost column in the current row. This kind of dependency is also not recorded.