Find the cell that is closest to a certain value in Excel - excel

Question

In Excel, I have many products with different sizes listed in columns, such that the sizes "10x10 cm", "11x11 cm" and "15x15 cm" belongs to Product A, etc.
In some other cells, I am selecting a product (either Product A, Product B, or Product C) and a size.
I want, for each of the other products, to determine which size is closest to the selected product:
I don't know how to solve this. One solution might be to remove all non-numeric characters from the strings and add the two values on each side of the "x" and then select the size with the lowest absolute difference from the sum of the selected size.
But I guess it would be easier to do a mapping and use a VLOOKUP to choose the first found size in a given column.
However, the problem is that I do not only have 3 products with a few different sizes, but rather 15 different products with 10 different sizes, so I don't know how to do a mapping in a clever way.

Answer 1

1) Creating a lookup table with the values extracted for each product,
Source sheet:
Code:
Sub lookup()
Dim i As Long, j As Long, prod As Integer, str As String
prod = InputBox("Enter Number of Products")
Sheets.Add.Name = "LookupSheet"
j = 1
For i = 1 To prod
Columns(i).Copy Sheets("LookupSheet").Cells(1, j)
j = j + 2
Next i
For j = 1 To prod * 2 Step 2
For i = 2 To Sheets("LookupSheet").Cells(Rows.Count, j).End(xlUp).Row
str = Replace(Replace(Sheets("LookupSheet").Cells(i, j), " ", ""), "cm", "")
Sheets("LookupSheet").Cells(i, j + 1) = Left(str, InStr(str, "x") - 1) _
* Mid(str, InStr(str, "x") + 1, 999)
Next i
Next j
End Sub
This simple code creates a lookup sheet with the corresponding values. The code ignores any spaces present between the texts.
LookupSheet:
Since you have 15 different products, run this macro to extract the lookup data. This should be a one time activity unless you have additional products.
2) Assuming you enter the product and dimensions to F5 and F6, i would suggest you to data validation with dropdowns to select from the list,
3) Using a worksheet_change event, detect for changes in F5 and F6,
Code:
Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
Dim str As String, result As Integer, i As Long
'F5 and F6 contains Product and Size repectively
If (Target.Address = "$F$5" Or Target.Address = "$F$6") _
And Range("F5") <> "" And Range("F6") <> "" Then
str = Replace(Replace(Range("F6"), " ", ""), "cm", "")
result = Left(str, InStr(str, "x") - 1) * Mid(str, InStr(str, "x") + 1, 999)
j = 8
For i = 1 To Cells(1, Columns.Count).End(xlToLeft).Column
If Cells(1, i) <> Range("F5") Then
Range("E" & j) = Cells(1, i)
j = j + 1
End If
Next i
End If
End Sub
This code automatically populated the rest of the product types in the column E,
4) The variable result would contain the product/area of the value that you provide in F6. The only task pending would be to loop through the lookup sheet to find the nearest match. The Algorithm is below,
Algorithm:
Compare cell F5 with the data in row 1 of lookup sheet (need to loop)
If they are equal, ignore and move to next value. If not, need to loop the immediate next column to find the next match, and populate the result in the corresponding cell in source sheet.
Algorithm for column wise looping is below,
Steps:
diff = cell.value - result
if diff < 0 then multiply diff by -1
loop:
nextdiff = nextcell.value - result (multiply by -1 if negative)
if nextdiff < diff then
diff = nextdiff
end if
end loop:
The cell value with the least difference would be your best match for that particular product type.
Bit lengthier explanation, hope this helps.