Returning multiple values using Vlookup in excel - excel

I have an excel sheet set up to automatically calculate meetings per day by day of the week. I would like to write a formula to return all dates I have a meeting scheduled (comma separated preferably), but I am having some difficulty. Using Vlookup, I can only get it to return the first date.
For example, here is what my data looks like:
A B C
Initial Meetings Follow-up Meetings Date
1 1 7/29/2015
0 1 7/30/2015
1 1 7/31/2015
0 0 8/1/2015
0 0 8/2/2015
I would like to write a formula to return "7/29/2015, 7/31/2015" in one cell, and "7/29/2015, 7/30/2015, 7/31/2015" in another, but I seem to be stuck.

You can't do this with vLookup.
This can be done relatively easily in a VB script, but it would affect portability as many if not most users disable macros by default and in many cases users are prevented from using Macros because their company disables them and makes it policy that users should not use them.
If you are OK with Macros, you can put the following into a new module and then use =MultiVlookup(lookup_value,table_array, col_index_num) in the same way as you'd use vlookup and it should give you a comma separated list of multiple matches:
Public Function MultiVlookup(find_value, search_range, return_row)
Dim myval ' String to represent return value (comma-separated list)
Dim comma ' Bool to represent whether we need to prefix the next result with ", "
comma = False
'Debug.Print find_value.value, return_row
For Each rw In search_range.Rows ' Iterate through each row in the range
If rw.Cells(1, 1).value = find_value Then ' If we have found the lookup value...
If comma Then ' Add a comma if it's not the first value we're adding to the list
myval = myval + ", "
Else
comma = True
End If
myval = myval + Str(rw.Cells(1, return_row).value)
End If
Next
MultiVlookup = myval
End Function
This may not be the cleanest way of doing it, and it isn't a direct copy of vlookup (for instance it does not have a fourth "range lookup" argument as vlookup does), but it works for my test:
Finally my original suggestion (in case it helps others - it's not the exact solution to the question) was:
I've not tried it myself, but this link shows what I think you might be looking for.

Great code, but don't forget to add the following is you use Option Explicit:
Dim rw As Range
WHEELS

Related

Summing the digits in Excel cells (long and short strings)

I'm working on a research related to frequencies.
I want to sum all the numbers in each cell and reduce them to single number only.
some cells have 2 numbers, others have 13 numbers. like these..
24.0542653897891
25.4846064424057
27
28.6055035477009
I tried several formulas to do that. the best ones have me 2 digits number, that I couldn't sum it again to get a single result.
like these Formulas:
=SUMPRODUCT(MID(SUBSTITUTE(B5,".",""),ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(B5)-1)),1)+0)
=SUMPRODUCT(1*MID(C5,ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(C5))),1))
any suggestion?
Thank you in advance.
EDIT
Based on your explanation your comments, it seems that what you want is what is called the digital root of the all the digits (excluding the decimal point). In other words, repeatedly summing the digits until you get to a single digit.
That can be calculated by a simpler formula than adding up the digits.
=1+(SUBSTITUTE(B5,".","")-1)-(INT((SUBSTITUTE(B5,".","")-1)/9)*9)
For long numbers, we can split the number in half and process each half. eg:
=1+MOD(1+MOD(LEFT(SUBSTITUTE(B5,".",""),INT(LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B5,".",""))/2))-1,9)+1+MOD(RIGHT(SUBSTITUTE(B5,".",""),LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B5,".",""))-INT(LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B5,".",""))/2))-1,9)-1,9)
However, the numbers should be stored as TEXT. When numbers are stored as numbers, what we see may not necessarily be what is stored there, and what the formula (as well as the UDF) will process.
The long formula version will correct all the errors on your worksheet EXCEPT for B104. B104 appears to have the value 5226.9332653096000 but Excel is really storing the value 5226.9333265309688. Because of Excel's precision limitations, this will get processed as 5226.93332653097. Hence there will be a disagreement.
Another method that should work would be to round all of the results in your column B to 15 digits (eg: . Combining that with using the long formula version should result in agreement for all the values you show.
Explanation
if a number is divisible by 9, its digital root will be 9, otherwise, the digital root will be n MOD 9
The general formula would be: =1+Mod(n-1,9)
In your case, since we are dealing with numbers larger than can be calculated using the MOD function, we need to both remove the dot, and also use the equivalent of mod which is n-(int(n/9)*9)
Notes:
this will work best with numbers stored as text. Since Excel may display and/or convert large numbers, or numbers with many decimal places, differently than expected, working with text strings of digits is the most stable method.
this method will not work reliably with numbers > 15 digits.
If you have numbers > 15 digits, then I suggest a VBA User Defined Function:
Option Explicit
Function digitalRoot(num As String) As Long
Dim S As String, Sum As Long, I As Long
S = num
Do While Len(S) > 1
Sum = 0
For I = 1 To Len(S)
Sum = Sum + Val(Mid(S, I, 1))
Next I
S = Trim(Str(Sum))
Loop
digitalRoot = CLng(S)
End Function
You could use a formula like:
=SUMPRODUCT(FILTERXML("<t><s>"&SUBSTITUTE(A1," ","</s><s>")&"</s></t>","//s"))
You might need an extra SUBSTITUTE for changing . to , if that's your decimal delimiter:
=SUMPRODUCT(FILTERXML("<t><s>"&SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1,".",",")," ","</s><s>")&"</s></t>","//s"))
However, maybe a UDF as others proposed is also a possibility for you. Though, something tells me I might have misinterpreted your question...
I hope you are looking for something like following UDF.
Function SumToOneDigit(myNumber)
Dim temp: temp = 0
CalcLoop:
For i = 1 To Len(myNumber)
If IsNumeric(Mid(myNumber, i, 1)) Then temp = temp + Mid(myNumber, i, 1)
Next
If Len(temp) > 1 Then
myNumber = temp
temp = 0
GoTo CalcLoop
End If
SumToOneDigit = temp
End Function
UDF (User Defined Functions) are codes in VBA (visual basic for applications).
When you can not make calculations with Given Excel functions like ones in your question, you can UDFs in VBA module in Excel. See this link for UDF .. If you dont have developer tab see this link ,, Add a module in VBA in by right clicking on the workbook and paste the above code in that module. Remember, this code remains in this workbook only. So, if you want to use this UDF in some other file your will have to add module in that file and paste the code in there as well. If you are frequently using such an UDF, better to make add-in out of it like this link
In addition to using "Text to Columns" as a one-off conversion, this is relatively easy to do in VBA, by creating a user function that accepts the data as a string, splits it into an array separated by spaces, and then loops the elements to add them up.
Add the following VBA code to a new module:
Function fSumData(strData As String) As Double
On Error GoTo E_Handle
Dim aData() As String
Dim lngLoop1 As Long
aData = Split(strData, " ")
For lngLoop1 = LBound(aData) To UBound(aData)
fSumData = fSumData + CDbl(aData(lngLoop1))
Next lngLoop1
fExit:
On Error Resume Next
Exit Function
E_Handle:
MsgBox Err.Description & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & "fSumData", vbOKOnly + vbCritical, "Error: " & Err.Number
Resume fExit
End Function
Then enter this into a cell in the Excel worksheet:
=fSumData(A1)
Regards,
The UDF below will return the sum of all numbers in a cell passed to it as an argument.
Function SumCell(Cell As Range) As Double
Dim Fun As Double ' function return value
Dim Sp() As String ' helper array
Dim i As Integer ' index to helper array
Sp = Split(Cell.Cells(1).Value)
For i = 0 To UBound(Sp)
Fun = Fun + Val(Sp(i))
Next i
SumCell = Fun
End Function
Install the function in a standard code module, created with a name like Module1. Call it from the worksheet with syntax like =SumCell(A2) where A2 is the cell that contains the numbers to be summed up. Copy down as you would a built-in function.

How can I lookup data from one column, when the value I'm referencing changes columns?

I want to do an INDEX-MATCH-like lookup between two documents, except my MATCH's index array doesn't stay in one column.
In Vague-English: I want a value from a known column that matches another value that may be found in any column.
Refer to the image below. Let's call everything to the left of the bold vertical line on column H doc1, and the right side will be doc2.
Doc2 has a column "Find This", which will be the INDEX's array. It is compared with "ID1" from doc1 (Note that the values in "Find This" will not be in the same order as column ID1, but it's easier to undertsand this way).
The "[Result]" column in doc2 will be the value from doc1's "Want This" column from the row that matches "FIND THIS" ...However, sometimes the value from "FIND THIS" is not in the "ID1" column, and is instead in "ID2","ID3", etc.
So, I'm trying to generate Col K from Col J. This would be like pressing Ctrl+F and searching for a value in Col J, then taking the value from Col D in that row and copying it to Col K.
I made identical values from a column the same color in the other doc to make it easier to visualize where they are coming from.
Note also that in column F of doc1, the same value from doc2's "Find This" can be found after some other text.
Also note that the column headers are only there as examples, the ID columns are not actually numbered.
I would simply hard-code the correct column to search from, but I'm not in control of doc1, and I'm worried that future versions may have new "ID" columns, with other's being removed.
I'd prefer this to be a solution in the form of a formula, but VB will do.
To generate column K based on given values of column J then you could use the following:
=INDEX(doc1!$D$2:$D$14,SUMPRODUCT((doc1!$B$2:$H$14=J2)*ROW(doc1!$B$2:$H$14))-1)
Copy that formula down as far as you need to go.
It basically only returns the row of the where a matching column J is found. we then find that row in the index of your D range to get your value in K.
Proof of concept:
UPDATE:
If you are working with non unique entities n column J. That is the value on its own can be found in multiple rows and columns. Consider using the following to return the Last row where there J value is found:
=INDEX(doc1!$D$2:$D$14,AGGREGATE(14,6,(doc1!$B$2:$H$14=J2)*ROW(doc1!$B$2:$H$14),1)-1)
UPDATE 2:
And to return the first row where what you are looking in column J is found use:
=INDEX($D$2:$D$14,AGGREGATE(15,6,1/($B$2:$H$14=J2)*ROW($B$2:$H$14)-1,1))
Thanks to Scott Craner for the hint on the minimum formula.
To determine if you have UNIQUE data from column J in your range B2:H14 you can enter this array formula. In order to enter an array formula you need to press CTRL+SHFT+ENTER at the same time and not just ENTER. You will know you have done it right when you see {} around your formula in the formula bar. You cannot at the {} manually.
=IF(MAX(COUNTIF($B$2:$H$14,J2:J14))>1,"DUPLICATES","UNIQUE")
UPDATE 3
AGGREGATE - A relatively new function to me but goes back to Excel 2010. Aggregate is 19 functions rolled into 1. It would be nice if they all worked the same way but they do not. I think it is functions numbered 14 and up that will perform the same way an array formula or a CSE formula if you prefer. The nice thing is you do not need to use CSE when entering or editing them. SUMPRODUCT is another example of a regular formula that performs array formula calculations.
The meat of this explanation I believe is what is happening inside of the AGGREGATE brackets. If you click on the link you will get an idea of what the first two arguments are. The first defines which function you are using, and the second tell AGGREGATE how to deal with Errors, hidden rows, and some other nested functions. That is the relatively easy part. What I believe you want to know is what is happening with this:
(doc1!$B$2:$H$14=J2)*ROW(doc1!$B$2:$H$14)
For illustrative purpose lets reduce this formula to something a little smaller in scale that does the same thing. I'll avoid starting in A1 as that can make life a little easier when counting since it the 1st row and first column. So by placing the example range outside of it you can see some more special considerations potentially.
What I want to know is what row each of the items list in Column C occurs in column B
| B | C
3 | DOG | PLATYPUS
4 | CAT | DOG
5 | PLATYPUS |
The full formula for our mini example would be:
{=($B$3:$B$5=C2)*ROW($B$3:$B$5)}
And we are going to look at the following as an array
=INDEX($B$3:$B$5,AGGREGATE(14,6,($B$3:$B$5=C2)*ROW($B$3:$B$5),1)-2)
So the first brackets is going to be a Boolean array as you noted. Every cell that is TRUE will TRUE until its forced into a math calculation. When that happens, True becomes 1 and False becomes 0.I that formula was entered as a CSE formula and place in D2, it would break down as follows:
FALSE X 3
FALSE X 4
TRUE X 5
The 3, 4 and 5 come from ROW() returning the value of the row number that it is dealing with at the time of the array math operation. Little trick, we could have had ROW(1:3). Just need to make sure the size of the array matches! This is not matrix math is just straight across multiplication. And since the Boolean is now experiencing a math operation we are now looking at:
0 X 3 = 0
0 X 4 = 0
1 X 5 = 5
So the array of {0,0,5} gets handed back to the aggregate for more processing. The important thing to note here is that it contains ONLY 0 and the individual row numbers where we had a match. So with the first aggregate formula, formula 14 was chosen which is the LARGE function. And we also told it to ignore errors, which in this particular case does not matter. So after providing the array to the aggregate function, there was a ,1) to finish off the aggregate function. The 1 tells the aggregate function that we want the 1st larges number when the array is sorted from smallest to largest. If that number was 2 it would be the 2nd largest number and so on. So the last row or the only row that something is found on is returned. So in our small example it would be 5.
But wait that 5 was buried inside another function called Index. and in our small example that INDEX formula would be:
=INDEX($B$3:$B$5,AGGREGATE(...)-2)
Well we know that the range is only 3 rows long, so asking for the 5th row, would have excel smacking you up side the head with an error because your index number is out of range. So in comes the header row correction of -1 in the original formula or -2 for the small example and what we really see for the small example is:
=INDEX($B$3:$B$5,5-2)
=INDEX($B$3:$B$5,3)
and here is a weird bit of info, That last one does not become PLATYPUS...it becomes the cell reference to =B5 which pulls PLATYPUS. But that little nuance is a story for another time.
Now in the comments Scott essentially told me to invert for the error to get the first row. And this is important step for the aggregate and it had me running in circles for awhile. So the full equation for the first row option in our mini example is
=INDEX($B$3:$B$5,AGGREGATE(15,6,1/($B$3:$B$5=C2)*ROW($B$3:$B$5),1)-2)
And what Scott Craner was actually suggesting which Skips one math step is:
=INDEX($B$3:$B$5,AGGREGATE(15,6,ROW($B$3:$B$5)/($B$3:$B$5=C2),1)-2)
However since I only realized this after writing this all up the explanation will continue with the first of these two equations
So the important thing to note here is the change from function 14 to function 15 which is SMALL. Think of it a finding the minimum. And this time that 6 plays a huge factor along with the 1/. So our array in the middle this time equates to:
1/FALSE X 3
1/FALSE X 4
1/TRUE X 5
Which then becomes:
1/0 X 3
1/0 X 4
1/1 X 5
Which then has excel slapping you up side the head again because you are trying to divide by 0:
#div/0 X 3
#div/0 X 4
1/1 X 5
But you were smart and you protected yourself from that slap upside the head when you told AGGREGATE to ignore error when you used 6 as the second argument/reference! Therefore what is above becomes:
{5}
Since we are performing a SMALL, and we passed ,1) as the closing part of the AGGREGATE, we have essentially said give me the minimum row number or the 1st smallest number of the resulting array when sorted in ascending order.
The rest plays out the same as it did for the LARGE AGGREGATE method. The pitfall I fell into originally is I did not use the 1/ to force an error. As a result, every time I tried getting the SMALL of the array I was getting 0 from all the false results.
SUMPRODUCT works in a very similar fashion, but only works when your result array in the middle only returns 1 non zero answer. The reason being is the last step of the SUMPRODUCT function is to all the individual elements of the resulting array. So if you only have 1 non zero, you get that non zero number. If you had two rows that matched for instance 12 and 31, then the SUMPRODUCT method would return 43 which is not any of the row numbers you wanted, where as aggregate large would have told you 31 and aggregate small would have told you 12.
Something like this maybe, starting in K2 and copied down:
=IFERROR(INDEX(D:D,MAX(IFERROR(MATCH(J2,B:B,0),-1),IFERROR(MATCH(J2,E:E,0),-1),IFERROR(MATCH(J2,G:G,0),-1),IFERROR(MATCH(J2,H:H,0),-1))),"")
If you want to keep the positions of the columns for the Match variable, consider creating generic range names for each column you want to check, like "Col1", "Col2", "Col3". Create a few more range names than you think you will need and reference them to =$B:$B, =$E:$E etc. Plug all range names into Match functions inside the Max() statement as above.
When columns are added or removed from the table, adjust the range name definitions to the columns you want to check.
For example, if you set up the formula with five Matches inside the Max(), and the table changes so you only want to check three columns, point three of the range names to the same column. The Max() will only return one result and one lookup, even if the same column is matched several times.
I came up with a vba solution if I understood correctly:
Sub DisplayActiveRange()
Dim sheetToSearch As Worksheet
Set sheetToSearch = Sheet2
Dim sheetToOutput As Worksheet
Set sheetToOutput = Sheet1
Dim search As Range
Dim output As Range
Dim searchCol As String
searchCol = "J"
Dim outputCol As String
outputCol = "K"
Dim valueCol As String
valueCol = "D"
Dim r As Range
Dim currentRow As Integer
currentRow = 1
Dim maxRow As Integer
maxRow = sheetToOutput.UsedRange.Rows.Count
For currentRow = 1 To maxRow
Set search = Range("J" & currentRow)
For Each r In sheetToSearch.UsedRange
If r.Value <> "" Then
If r.Value = search.Value Then
Set output = sheetToOutput.Range(outputCol & currentRow)
output.Value = sheetToSearch.Range(valueCol & currentRow).Value
currentRow = currentRow + 1
Set search = sheetToOutput.Range(searchCol & currentRow)
End If
End If
Next
Next currentRow
End Sub
There might be better ways of doing it, but this will give you what you want. We assume headers in both "source" and "destination" sheets. You will need to adapt the "Const" declarations according to how your sheets are named. Press Control & G in Excel to bring up the VBA window and copy and paste this code into "This Workbook" under the "VBA Project" group, then select "Run" from the menu:
Option Explicit
Private Const sourceSheet = "Source"
Private Const destSheet = "Destination"
Public Sub FindColumns()
Dim rowCount As Long
Dim foundValue As String
Sheets(destSheet).Select
rowCount = 1 'Assume a header row
Do While Range("J" & rowCount + 1).value <> ""
rowCount = rowCount + 1
foundValue = FncFindText(Range("J" & rowCount).value)
Sheets(destSheet).Select
Range("K" & rowCount).value = foundValue
Loop
End Sub
Private Function FncFindText(value As String) As String
Dim rowLoop As Long
Dim colLoop As Integer
Dim found As Boolean
Dim pos As Long
Sheets(sourceSheet).Select
rowLoop = 1
colLoop = 0
Do While Range(alphaCon(colLoop + 1) & rowLoop + 1).value <> "" And found = False
rowLoop = rowLoop + 1
Do While Range(alphaCon(colLoop + 1) & rowLoop).value <> "" And found = False
colLoop = colLoop + 1
pos = InStr(Range(alphaCon(colLoop) & rowLoop).value, value)
If pos > 0 Then
FncFindText = Mid(Range(alphaCon(colLoop) & rowLoop).value, pos, Len(value))
found = True
End If
Loop
colLoop = 0
Loop
End Function
Private Function alphaCon(aNumber As Integer) As String
Dim letterArray As String
Dim iterations As Integer
letterArray = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
If aNumber <= 26 Then
alphaCon = (Mid$(letterArray, aNumber, 1))
Else
If aNumber Mod 26 = 0 Then
iterations = Int(aNumber / 26)
alphaCon = (Mid$(letterArray, iterations - 1, 1)) & (Mid$(letterArray, 26, 1))
Else
'we deliberately round down using 'Int' as anything with decimal places is not a full iteration.
iterations = Int(aNumber / 26)
alphaCon = (Mid$(letterArray, iterations, 1)) & (Mid$(letterArray, (aNumber - (26 * iterations)), 1))
End If
End If
End Function

Prevent Partial Duplicates in Excel

I have a worksheet with products where the people in my office can add new positions. The problem we're running into is that the products have specifications but not everybody puts them in (or inputs them wrong).
Example:
"cool product 14C"
Is there a way to convert Data Valuation option so that it warns me now in case I put "very cool product 14B" or anything that contains an already existing string of characters (say, longer than 4), like "cool produKt 14C" but also "good product 15" and so on?
I know that I can prevent 100% matches using COUNTIF and spot words that start/end in the same way using LEFT/RIGHT but I need to spot partial matches within the entries as well.
Thanks a lot!
If you want to cover typo's, word wraps, figure permutations etc. maybe a SOUNDEX algorithm would suit to your problem. Here's an implementation for Excel ...
So if you insert this as a user defined function, and create a column =SOUNDEX(A1) for each product row, upon entry of a new product name you can filter for all product rows with same SOUNDEX value. You can further automate this by letting user enter the new name into a dialog form first, do the validation, present them a Combo Box dropdown with possible duplicates, etc. etc. etc.
edit:
small function to find parts of strings terminated by blanks in a range (in answer to your comment)
Function FindSplit(Arg As Range, LookRange As Range) As String
Dim LookFor() As String, LookCell As Range
Dim Idx As Long
LookFor = Split(Arg)
FindSplit = ""
For Idx = 0 To UBound(LookFor)
For Each LookCell In LookRange.Cells
If InStr(1, LookCell, LookFor(Idx)) <> 0 Then
If FindSplit <> "" Then FindSplit = FindSplit & ", "
FindSplit = FindSplit & LookFor(Idx) & ":" & LookCell.Row
End If
Next LookCell
Next Idx
If FindSplit = "" Then FindSplit = "Cool entry!"
End Function
This is a bit crude ... but what it does is the following
split a single cell argument in pieces and put it into an array --> split()
process each piece --> For Idx = ...
search another range for strings that contain the piece --> For Each ...
add piece and row number of cell where it was found into a result string
You can enter/copy this as a formula next to each cell input and know immediately if you've done a cool input or not.
Value of cell D8 is [asd:3, wer:4]
Note the use of absolute addressing in the start of lookup range; this way you can copy the formula well down.
edit 17-Mar-2015
further to comment Joanna 17-Mar-2015, if the search argument is part of the range you're scanning, e.g. =FINDSPLIT(C5; C1:C12) you want to make sure that the If Instr(...) doesn't hit if LookCell and LookFor(Idx) are really the same cell as this would create a false positive. So you would rewrite the statement to
...
...
If InStr(1, LookCell, LookFor(Idx)) <> 0 And _
Not (LookCell.Row = Arg.Row And LookCell.Column = Arg.Column) _
Then
hint
Do not use a complete column (e.g. $C:$C) as the second argument as the function tends to become very slow without further precautions

Excel Substrings

I have two unordered sets of data here:
blah blah:2020:50::7.1:45
movie blah:blahbah, The:1914:54:
I want to extract all the data to the left of the year (aka, 1915 and 1914).
What excel formula would I use for this?
I tried this formula
=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(":",A1)),MID(A1,SEARCH(":",A1),300),A1)
these were the results below:
: blahblah, The:1914:54::7
:1915:50::7.1:45:
This is because there is a colon in the movie title.
The results I need consistently are:
:1914:54::7.9:17::
:1915:50::7.1:45::
Can someone help with this?
You can use Regular Expressions, make sure you include a reference for it in your VBA editor. The following UDF will do the job.
Function ExtractNumber(cell As Range) As String
ExtractNumber = ""
Dim rex As New RegExp
rex.Pattern = "(:\d{4}:\d{2}::\d\.\d:\d{2}::\d:\d:\d:\d:\d:\d:\d)"
rex.Global = True
Dim mtch As Object, sbmtch As Object
For Each mtch In rex.Execute(cell.Value)
ExtractNumber = ExtractNumber & mtch.SubMatches(0)
Next mtch
End Function
Without VBA:
In reality you don't want to find the : You want to find either :1 or :2 since the year will either start with 1 or 2This formula should do it:
=MID(A1,MIN(IFERROR(FIND(":1",A1,1),9999),IFERROR(FIND(":2",A1),9999)),9999)
Look for a four digit string, in a certain range, bounded by colons.
For example:
=MID(A1,MIN(FIND(":" &ROW(INDIRECT("1900:2100"))&":",A1 &":" &ROW(INDIRECT("1900:2100"))&":")),99)
entered as an array formula by holding down ctrl-shift while hitting Enter would ensure years in the range 1900 to 2100. Change those values as appropriate for your data. The 99 at the end represents the longest possible string. Again, that can be increased as required.
You can use the same approach to return just the left hand part, up to the colon preceding the year:
=LEFT(A1,-1+MIN(FIND(":" &ROW(INDIRECT("1900:2100"))&":",A1 &":" &ROW(INDIRECT("1900:2100"))&":")))
Here is a screen shot, showing the original data in B1:B2, with the results of the first part in B4:B5, and the formula for B4 showing in the formula bar.
The results for the 2nd part are in B7:B9

Turning an excel formula into a VBA function

I'm a bit new to trying to program and originally was just trying to improve a spreadsheet but it's gone beyond using a basic function in excel. I have a table that I am having a function look at to find a building number in the first column and then look at start and finish dates in two other respective columns to find out if it should populate specific blocks on a calendar worksheet. The problem occurs because the same building number may appear multiple times with different dates and I need to to find an entry that matches the correct dates.
I was able to create a working though complicated formula to find the first instance and learned I can add a nested if of that formula again in the false statement with a slight change. I can continue doing that but it becomes very large and cumbersome. I'm trying to find a way to make a function for the formula with a variable in it that would look at how many times the it has already been used so it keeps searching down the table for an answer that fits the parameters.
This is currently my formula:
=IFERROR(IF(AND(DATE('IF SHEET (2)'!$F$7,MATCH('IF SHEET (2)'!$C$2,'IF SHEET (2)'!$C$2:'IF SHEET (2)'!$N$2,0),'IF SHEET (2)'!C$4)>=VLOOKUP("2D11"&1,A2:F6,4,0),DATE('IF SHEET (2)'!$F$7,MATCH('IF SHEET (2)'!$C$2,'IF SHEET (2)'!$C$2:'IF SHEET (2)'!$N$2,0),'IF SHEET (2)'!C$4)<=VLOOKUP("2D11"&1,A2:F6,4,0)),IF(VLOOKUP("2D11"&1,A2:F6,3,0)="2D11",VLOOKUP("2D11"&1,A2:F6,6,FALSE)),"NO ANSWER"),"ERROR")
Where you see 2D11&1 is where I need the variable for 1 so it would be "number of times it's been used in the function +1" then I could just loop it so it would keep checking till it ran out of 2D11's or found one that matched. I haven't posted before and I'm doing this through a lot of trial and error so if you need more info please post and say so and I'll try to provide it.
So rather than have someone try to make sense of the rediculous formula I posted I though I would try to make it simpler by just stating what I need to accomplish and trying to see how to turn that into a VBA function. So I'm kinda looking at a few steps:
Matches first instance of building name in column A with
building name for the row of the output cell.
Is date connected with the output cell >= start date of first entry(which is user entered in column D).
Is date connected with the output cell <= end date of first entry(which is user entered in column E).
Enters Unit name(located in column F) for first instance of the building if Parts 1, 2, and 3 are all True.
If parts 1, 2, or 3 are False then loops to look at next instance of the building name down column 1.
Hopefully this makes things clearer than the formula so I'm able to get help as I'm still pretty stuck due to low knowledge of VBA.
Here is a simple solution...
Building_name = ???
Date = ???
Last_Row = Range("A65536").End(xlUp).Row
For i = 1 To Last_Row
if cells(i,1).value = Building_Name Then
if date >= cells(i,4).value Then
if date <= cells(i,5).value Then
first instance = cells(i,6).value
end if
end if
end if
next
you should add a test at the end to avoid the case where there is no first instance in the table
If I understand correctly, you have a Table T1 made of 3 columns: T1.building, T1.start date, T1.end date.
Then you have 3 parameters: P1=building, P2=start date, P3=end date.
You need to find the first entry in table T1 that "fits" within the input parameters dates, that is:
P1=T1.building
P2<=T1.start date
P3>=T1.end date
If so, you can define a custom function like this
Public Function MyLookup(Key As Variant, DateMin As Variant, DateMax As Variant, LookUpTable As Range, ResultColumn As Integer) As Range
Dim iIndx As Integer
Dim KeyValue As Variant
Dim Found As Boolean
On Error GoTo ErrHandler
Found = False
iIndx = 1
Do While (Not Found) And (iIndx <= LookUpTable.Rows.Count)
KeyValue = LookUpTable.Cells(iIndx, 1)
If (KeyValue = Key) And _
(DateMin <= LookUpTable.Cells(iIndx, 2)) And _
(DateMax >= LookUpTable.Cells(iIndx, 3)) Then
Set MyLookup = LookUpTable.Cells(iIndx, ResultColumn)
Found = True
End If
iIndx = iIndx + 1
Loop
Exit Function
ErrHandler:
MsgBox "Error in MyLookup: " & Err.Description
End Function
That may not be the most performant piece of code in the world, but I think it's explanatory.
You can download this working example

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