Vlookup with wildcard not working (partial string match) on long values - excel

I understand the basic use of the vlookup with wildcard but I'm running into a problem lately.
I need to lookup a value that contained in a cell as a part of string. In the below Sample I look up colA in the colC, with should be found, then return the values in col D into col B.
I use =VLOOKUP("*"&A1&"*",C$1:D$2,2,0), and it only works for B1.
Why do B2 & B3 don't work out the same way? Any solution?
Sample:

As per your investigation and comment by Axel, VLOOKUP doesn't work with values over 255 characters in length. A workaround is use an array formula with the SEARCH function which handles much longer values. Double click into cell B1 and paste this formula, then save it by pressing CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER instead of just pressing Enter by itself:
=INDEX($D$1:$D$2,MATCH(TRUE,ISNUMBER(SEARCH(A1&",",$C$1:$C$2&",")),0))
If you enter it correctly, selecting the cell will show {curly braces} around the formula and it should evaluate to your desired result.
This formula first creates an array searching for the position of A1 in every cell in C1:C2. The array will consist of numbers (when A1 is found) and errors (when A1 is not found).
ISNUMBER then creates an array of TRUE (when A1 is found) and FALSE (when A1 is not found)
MATCH then finds the first TRUE value in the array.
INDEX then returns the corresponding value from the D1:D2.
Edit: The formula now searched for the value in A1 followed by a comma. This ensures that an exact match is made. To also ensure that the formula can match against the last value in any cell in column C, a comma is also added to the end of the values in column C.

Related

=ISNUMBER(SEARCH()) formula not working properly

Basically, im trying to search if values from column b is contained in cells on column a
I am currently using the formula
=ISNUMBER(SEARCH(B1,$A:$A))
and using it inside a conditional formatting to highlight the cells in column A that contains strings from column B. But it is not highlighting the correct cells
any advice?
Problem is that your ISNUMBER(SEARCH(…. formula is returning an array of values {FALSE;TRUE;FALSE;FALSE;...} one return for each item in within_text. You need to know if any of those items match.
So, with your formula, consider the array formula modification
=OR(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(B1,$A:$A)))
Since this is an array formula, you need to "confirm" it by holding down ctrl + shift while hitting enter. If you do this correctly, Excel will place braces {...} around the formula as observed in the formula bar
If you don't like to use the CSE entry method, you could use this formula which will return zero for no matches, or be non-zero for any matches:
=SUMPRODUCT(-ISNUMBER(SEARCH(B1,$A:$A)))
Excel's SEARCH function is used to find the position of one string within another string. Generally you use it like this:
=SEARCH("String A", "A Longer String Containing String A")
This will return the character index where first string starts within the second string, which in this case would be 28.
What you really need is a VLOOKUP. Since you're doing a textual search (substring), you need your range to be of text type instead of number.
You should do the following:
Add an extra column to the right of Column A and use TEXT function to convert entries to textual form:
=TEXT(A1, "#")
Now you can use VLOOKUP to perform a substring-match in this textual range. VLOOKUP supports wildcards when you do not ask it to perform an exact match (4th argument should be FALSE). Here is your formula then:
=VLOOKUP("*" & C1 & "*",$B:$B,1,FALSE)
Note that I have passed column B (textual column) as the lookup range, whereas C1 is the cell containing the text that you want to search.
This method also has the additional advantage that it returns the actual matched entry from the range so you don't have to find it manually.
Once you have your results, you can apply conditional formatting to it.
Highlight column A (or the relevant range in column A starting cell A1) with the first cell (which is A1 in this case) as the active cell, use the following formula as the conditional formatting rule:
=(SEARCH($B1,$A1)*(LEN($B1)>0))>0
The logic is to first search the given sub-string from the main string, then multiple the result by LEN($B1)>0 to exclude the result of 1 returned for blank cells in column B.
Note: Conditional Formatting works in array fashion so even though the formula only looks at values in the first row of the range, as long as you use the relative (or in some cases absolute) cell references correctly and highlight the result range correctly before setting up the rule, the rule will be applied across in the same way as for the first row of the array as demonstrated in this example.

Problem extracting data from a cell populated from a formula

I imported a txt document which creates 7 columns of data. One of the data points in the document is a MAC address, however, due to the format of the txt document (and there is no way around this), the MAC address is split up into 6 columns (B-G), with all other pertinent data (non MAC addresses) existing in column B.
I am trying to write a formula to check a cell in column B, and if it contains "BSSID" then it will combine the text in the corresponding row from columns B-G and enters the new value in column H (so it shows as a normal MAC address). If the cell does not contain "BSSID", then the value of that cell just needs to be moved to the corresponding row in column H.
MY PROBLEM IS given the formula below, if the cell contains "BSSID", the corresponding row in column H will only display the value of the cell in the first column, instead of all the columns.
I have tried taking the code, that combines cells in B-G within the formula, and surrounding it in brackets and quotations, with no luck.
I also tried making this a multiple step solution by only running the formula to combine everything in column H, and then in column I, via a formula.
I tried to move the value returned in column H to column I, but I run into the same issue.
And I have tried swapping the return values, just to make sure, I didn't mix up the true return with the false return.
Original Code I would like to get to work:
=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(“BSSID”,A2)),B2&":"&C2&":"&D2&":"&E2&":"&F2&":"&G2,B2)
This is what the code looked like, when I broke it into 2 parts:
Column H: =B2&":"&C2&":"&D2&":"&E2&":"&F2&":"&G2, B2
Column I: =IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(“BSSID”,A2)),H2,B2)
Both codes only return the value in cell B2 if true, instead of what should look like a MAC address.
My expected results would be, in a single formula, if B2 contains the string "BSSID" that H2 would show the content of B2-G2 formatted to look like a MAC address; and if B2 does not contain the string "BSSID" then H2 will show the content of B2.
Actual result is that H2, when the formula returns true, only displays B2 and not B2-G2.
I would approach this problem as follows:
Check the cell for BSSID using an IF statement =IF(SEARCH("BSSID",A2), <true>, <false>)
This statement may result in an error though, if "BSSID" isn't found. Your code looks to be fine, but perhaps herein lies the issue. To be sure, we can insert a catch for the errors using IFERROR =IF(IFERROR(SEARCH("BSSID",A2), FALSE), <true>, <false>)
Then, within the <true> section of the IF statement, I would use TEXTJOIN to combine my cells with a colon inbetween ...TEXTJOIN(":",TRUE,B2:G2)...
EDIT: I notice that you say in one location that you are checking cell A2 for "BSSID" and in another you say you are checking cell B2. Perhaps make sure you aren't checking the wrong cell?
=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(“BSSID”,A2)),B2&":"&C2&":"&D2&":"&E2&":"&F2&":"&G2,B2)
...
My expected results would be, in a single formula, if B2 contains the string "BSSID" that H2 would ...

finding next empty row

This might be easy for many but I need to solve an issue which is following;
I have the following formula which finds the empty row after D4.
=MATCH(TRUE;D4:D1048576="";0)+3
After this I want to be able to find the empty row from another defined cell, say D10.
How can I do this?
Try this as an array formula - Ctrl+Shift+Enter:
=MIN(IF(D4:D100="",ROW(D4:D100)))
It works from D4 to D100, providing the first empty value.
If you're looking to use same formula to match next cell then use
For blanks after D4
=MATCH(TRUE,INDEX(ISBLANK(D4:D1048576),0),0)
For blanks after D10
=MATCH(TRUE,INDEX(ISBLANK(D10:D1048576),0),0)
To find the A1th blank cell, you can use the following formula:
=AGGREGATE(15,6,ROW(D:D)/--ISBLANK(D:D),A1)
How it works
AGGREGATE(15,6,..) is like SMALL(..), but skips any error values.
ROW(..) provides the row number of the cell provided
ISBLANK(..) is TRUE for blank cells or FALSE for non-blank cells
-- converts TRUE to 1 and FALSE to 0. This means that ROW(D:D)/--ISBLANK(D:D) will be either the Row Number (for blank cells) or a #Div0! error (which AGGREGATE will skip)
This produces a list of row numbers for all the blank cells, and you then use the AGGREGATE function to get the kth item in that list.
Taking it a step further
So, you want the 1st item larger than a specific row. We change the last argument in AGGREGATE to 1, and swap change our "Error out" code from ISBLANK(D:D) to AND(ISBLANK(D:D), ROW(D:D)>A1), to get the first blank row after the row number stored in A1:
=AGGREGATE(15, 6, ROW(D:D)/--AND(ISBLANK(D:D), ROW(D:D)>A1), 1)

Searching within a list of strings with anything in another list of strings in Excel

Example Data
I need to find anything in column B within the strings in Column A and output the cell in Column A in Column C.
I know if it is a short list I can do the highlight cell if a text contains x with Conditional Formatting. However, I have a long list of items that I need to check within the strings of another list.
Let me know if anymore detail needs to be provided. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
Try this Array formula with wildcards:
=IF(ISNUMBER(MATCH(1, IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("*"&$B$1:$B$3&"*",A1)),1,0),0)),"Y","N")
It is an array and need to be confirmed with Ctrl-Shift-Enter.
The search area represented in this small example, $B$1:$B$3 when enlarged must be to the exact range of lookups or it will not return correct values.
You can do this with array formula, type the following in cell C1, then press Ctrl + Shift + Enter:
=INDEX(B:B,MATCH(TRUE,FIND(B:B,A1)<>"#VALUE!",0))
Drag it down column C to match number of rows in column A. You can then put a conditional formatting/filter to see what row in A has substring in B.
If you simply want a yes/no result, enter the following into D1:
=IF(COUNTIF(C1:C6,"<>0")>0,"Found","Not Found")

Is there a 2 Value Look up function in MS Excel that can perform the following?

I am going crazy over this. It seems so simple yet I can't figure this out. I have two worksheets. First worksheet is my data. Second is like an answer key. Upon checking checking, A1:B1 in Sheet 1 is a match with the conditions in Row 52 in SHEET 2, therefore, the value in Column C is "MGC". What is the formula that will perform this function? It's really hard to explain without the data so I pasted a link of the sample spreadsheet. Thank you so much in advance.
sample spreadsheet here. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_AjuNfCdGfEM-XkqPa6W4hSIxQg4NM2Vg4c2C1pQ_vQ/edit?usp=sharing
screenshot here. (wont let me post i have no reputation)
In Sheet2, insert a column in front of Column A and put the formula in A2 =C2&D2.
Then in Sheet1, Cell C2 the formula =vlookup(A2&B2,Sheet2!A:B,2,0).
the first make a concatenated key to lookup, then the second looks up that key.
How about a index(match())? If I've understood correctly you need to match across both the A and B column in sheet one, checking for the relevant values in B and C on sheet 2 to retrun worksheet 2 column a to worksheet 1 column c.
third version try:
=INDEX(Sheet2!$C$1:$C$360,MATCH(Sheet1!A1&Sheet1!B1,Sheet2!$B$1:$B$360&Sheet2!$C$1:$C$360,0))
Basically what this does is use concatenation, the & operator, to specify you are looking for "Criteria A" & "Criteria B" in sheet 1, which makes the string "Criteria A Criteria B", which is supplied in the first part of the match function.
In the second it then says match this against all of my variables in sheet 2 in the same way with concantenation.
The final part of match function (0) specifies you want an 'exact' match
It then supplied this as a reference to the index function, which then finds the row intersecting with the value you want, and returns that.
As noted here https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/59482 this is an array formula, so it behaves differently, and must be input differently. https://support.office.com/en-za/article/Guidelines-and-examples-of-array-formulas-7d94a64e-3ff3-4686-9372-ecfd5caa57c7
There are (at least) 2 ways you could do this without VBA.
USING A SORTED LIST
The first relies on the assumption that your data can be re-sorted, so that everything "Unreported" is in the top, and everything "reported" is together below that (or vice versa). Assuming that this is the case (and it appears to already be sorted like this),we will use the function OFFSET to create a new range which shows only the values that align with either being "Unreported" or "Reported".
Offset takes a given reference to a point on a sheet, and then moves down/up & left/right to see what reference you want to return. Then, it returns a range of cells of a given height, and a given width. Here, we will want to start on Sheet2 at the top left, moving down until we find the term "Unreported" or "Reported". Once that term is found, we will want to move one column to the right (to pull column B from sheet 2), and then have a 'height' of as many rows as there are "unreported" or "reported" cells. This will look as follows in A1 on sheet 1, copied down:
=OFFSET(Sheet2!$A$1,MATCH(A1,Sheet2!A:A,0)-1,1,COUNTIF(Sheet2!A:A,A1),1)
This says: First, start at cell A1 on sheet2. Then find the term in A1 (either "unreported" or "reported", on sheet2!A:A (we subtract 1 because OFFSET starts at A1 - so if your data starts at A1 we need to actually stay at "0". If you have headers on sheet2, you will not need this -1). Then, move 1 column to the right. Go down the rows for as many times as Sheet2 column A has the term found in Sheet1 A1. Stay 1 column wide. Together, this will leave you with a single range on sheet2, showing column B for the entire length that column A matches your term in sheet1 A1.
Now we need to take that OFFSET, and use it to find out when the term in Sheet1 B1 is matched in Sheet2 column B. This will work as follows:
=MATCH(B1,[FORMULA ABOVE],0)
This shows the number of rows down, starting at the special OFFSET array created above, that the term from B1 is matched in column B from sheet2. To use this information to pull the result from column C on sheet 2, we can use the INDEX function, like so:
=INDEX([FORMULA ABOVE],MATCH(B1,[FORMULA ABOVE],0))
Because this would be fairly convoluted to have in a single cell, we can simplify this by using VLOOKUP, which will only require the OFFSET function to be entered a single time. This will work as follows:
=VLOOKUP(B1,[FORMULA ABOVE],2,0)
This takes the OFFSET formula above, finds the matching term in B1, and moves to the 2nd column to get the value from column C in sheet2. Because we are going to use VLOOKUP, the offset formula above will need to be adjusted to provide 2 columns of data instead of 1. Together, this will look as follows:
FINAL FORMULA FOR SHEET1, C1 & COPIED DOWN
=VLOOKUP(B1,OFFSET(Sheet2!$A$1,MATCH(A1,Sheet2!A:A,0)-1,1,COUNTIF(Sheet2!A:A,A1),2),2,0)
OPTION USING ARRAY FORMULAS
The above method will only work if your data is sorted so that the REPORTED and UNREPORTED rows are grouped together. If they cannot be sorted, you can use an ARRAY FORMULA, which essentially takes a formula which would normal apply to a single cell, and runs it over an entire range of cells. It returns an array of results, which must be reduced down to a single value. A basic array formula looks like this [assume for this example that A1 = 1, A2 = 2...A5 = 5]:
=IF(A1:A5>3,A1:A5,"")
Confirm this (and all array functions) by pressing CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER, instead of just ENTER. This looks at each cell from A1:A5, and if the value is bigger than 3, it gives the number from that cell - otherwise, it returns "". In this case, the result would be the array {"";"";"";4;5}. To get the single total of 9, wrap that in a SUM function:
=SUM(IF(A1:A5>3,A1:A5,""))
In your case, we will want to use an array formula to see what row in Sheet2 matches A1 from Sheet1, and B1 from Sheet1. This will look like this:
=IF(Sheet2!$A$1:A$100=A1,IF(Sheet2!$B$1:$B$100,ROW($B$1:$B$100),""),"")
This checks which rows in column A from sheet 2 match A1. For those that do, it then checks which rows in column B from sheet 2 match B1. For those, it pulls the row number from that match. Everything else returns "". Assuming no duplicates, there should only 1 row number which gets returned. To pull that number from the array of results, wrap the whole thing in a MATCH function. Now that you have the row number, you can use an INDEX function to pull the result in Column C with that row, like this:
FINAL ARRAY FORMULA METHOD
=INDEX($C$1:$C$100,MAX(IF(Sheet2!$A$1:A$100=A1,IF(Sheet2!$B$1:$B$100,ROW(Sheet2!$B$1:$B$100),""),"")))
Remember to confirm with CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER instead of just ENTER, when you type this formula. Note that I didn't refer to all of Sheet2!A:A, because array formulas run very slowly over large ranges.
The following formula should work without making any changes to the datasheets.
=INDEX(Sheet2!$A$1:$A$360,MATCH(Sheet1!A1,IF(Sheet2!$C$1:$C$360=Sheet1!B1,Sheet2!$B$1:$B$360),0))
Remember to save this formula as an array with CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER
Documentation on how to use INDEX and MATCH against multiple criteria can be found on Microsoft Support.
It's not clear what you want to do with the multiples that do not have corresponding matches. txed is listed as Unreported twice in Sheet1; kntyctap is listed as Unreported three times. There are only one corresponding match on Sheet2 for each of these.
Non-array Standard Formulas for multiple criteria matches
For Excel 2010 and above use this standard formula in Sheet1!C1:
=IFERROR(INDEX(Sheet2!$A$1:$A$999,AGGREGATE(15,6,ROW(1:999)/((Sheet2!$B$1:$B$999=A2)*(Sheet2!$C$1:$C$999=B1)), COUNTIFS(A$1:A1, A1, B$1:B1, B1))), "")
For version of Excel prior to 2010 use this standard formula in Sheet1!C1:
=IFERROR(INDEX(Sheet2!$A$1:$A$999, SMALL(INDEX(ROW($1:$999)+((Sheet2!$B$1:$B$999<>A1)+(Sheet2!$C$1:$C$999<>B1))*1E+99, , ), COUNTIFS(A$1:A1, A1, B$1:B1, B1))), "")
I've handled error with the IFERROR function in that latter formula. Excel 2003 and previous may have to use an IF(ISERROR(..., ...)) combination.

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