Find text in range and extract number from alphanumeric cell - excel-formula

Question

Worksheet 1 contains a list of names and quantities that are updated daily below (i.e. AAA is a name and 1 is the quantity):
Name
look.AAA :1
look.BBB :2
look.CCC :3
I'm trying to get the table in Worksheet 2 to search for text within the column range and extract the quantities using formulas.
So far i've tried search, lookup, vlookup, find & match functions (and combinations of these) but everything produces errors. I've tried to see if someone else has done something similar but I could not find anything online:
=match(aaa,sheet1!A2:A4)
I'm expecting to retrieve the quantity number by searching for the name and finding it within the text of a cell range.

Answer 1

You are on the right track. There are several ways to do this. VLOOKUP, LOOKUP, and a combination INDEX/MATCH are some of the more common methods. Since you started with match, this solution will carry on with your methodology.
Match is going to tell you which row of the selected range you are looking for. What you need to do is return the value from the same row but in a difference column. For starters we just need to tweak you match formula. Since you are looking for a string (text), and are hard coding it, the text value should be in quotes. Your Match formula becomes:
MATCH("AAA",sheet1!A2:A4,0)
That zero at the end tells match you are looking for an exact match. The other possible values for 0 are 1 and -1, but you need to have a sorted list and they will do an approximate match going forward or in reverse respectively. For a reverse search the list needs to be sorted in reverse order.
Now that you have a formula for the correct row within the selected range, you can use that in an INDEX formula from a matching size range somewhere else in the workbook. In this case you have it in the adjacent column. Your ultimate formula becomes:
INDEX(Sheet1!B2:B4,MATCH("AAA",sheet1!A2:A4,0))
Alternative options
VLOOKUP
VLOOKUP("AAA",sheet1!A2:B4,2,0)

Answer 2

See below revised solution:
I have given a name "Look_Rng" to the list which contains the original data.
My logic is to use a combination of MID, LEN and FIND functions to extract a number range and a text range from the original range first:
Number Range: {=--MID(Look_Rng,FIND(":",Look_Rng)+1,LEN(Look_Rng)-FIND(":",Look_Rng))}
which will return {1;20;300;3;2}
Text Range: {=MID(Look_Rng,MIN(IFERROR(FIND(D2,Look_Rng),33000)),LEN(D2))}
which will return {"AA";"oo";"CC";"e.";"lo"}
Then use MATCH function to find the position of the given name in the Text Range. For instance, if you are looking for CC in the Text Range, it will return 3.
Lastly, use INDEX function to locate the value in the corresponding position in the Number Range. For instance, CC is in the 3rd place in the Text Range, so its corresponding position in the Number Range is 300.
The full formula is quite long, and you MUST press Ctrl+Shift+Enter when exiting the formula to make it work because it is an ARRAY FORMULA.
{=INDEX(--MID(Look_Rng,FIND(":",Look_Rng)+1,LEN(Look_Rng)-FIND(":",Look_Rng)),MATCH(D2,MID(Look_Rng,MIN(IFERROR(FIND(D2,Look_Rng),33000)),LEN(D2)),0))}
Let me know if you have further questions.
P.s. I agree with #ForwardEd that it would be much easier if you use a couple helper columns to break the original data down and use simple INDEX+MATCH or VLOOKUP to look for the value. My answer used the same logic anyway.