is there a way to combine a search formula with a lookup or possibly use an if then statement. I think I have the first part working but need help with the second part. I am looking for values in column A and based on the values found in column A, I need to look at values in other columns and return the value found in that column.
Example, if column A contains value "car", I need to look at column B and return the value found in column B in column F , if column A contain value "boat", I need to look at column C and return the value found in column C in column F.
Any help would be much appreciated
Assuming that you have a list of possible values: car, boat, bike, plane, ... that would lead you to look for values in column B, C, D, E, ... I suggest you do the following:
Define the name "transportation" (whatever name you want to call it) with the types of transportation you need - for example, ={"car", "bike", "tram", "bus", "boat"} . On Office for Mac 2011 you do this with Insert->Name->Define... - for other versions of Excel it might be different (but note - you actually type both the = sign and the {} curly braces around the list of values you want to be able to look up). Put them in the order of the columns that you want.
For every lookup that you need, you can now write
=INDEX(B4:F4,0,MATCH(A4,transportation,0))
if the value (car, bus etc) is in cell A4, and you want to look up the corresponding value from columns B through F.
If you have column headings above your columns, you can use the MATCH function without having to define a name explicitly. For example, if you have car, bike, tram etc in cells B1:F1, you can use
=INDEX(B4:F4, 0, MATCH(A4, $B$1:$F$1, 0))
to do the lookup.
Explanation: the MATCH function (with third parameter 0) looks for the exact match for the first value (in cell A4 in this case) in the array that is the second parameter (either the named range, or the range with fixed address that I gave above). You then look up the appropriate cell using the INDEX function which gives you an offset into the range (B4:B4 in the above) of cells where you need to do the lookup.
I trust you can adapt this to your exact needs. Ask if you need more help.
The following formula is the simplest way I can think to do it:
In cell F1, the formula would be
=IF(A1="car",B1,C1)
This is case insensitive, so it should work for CAR as well. But bear in mind that this has the downside that with a formula this simple, ANY value in A1 other than "car" (not just "boat") would lead to the other value ending up in the F column.
=IF(A1="car",B1,IF(A1="boat",C1,""))
Related
"The range where the lookup value is located. Remember that the lookup value should always be in the first column in the range for VLOOKUP to work correctly. For example, if your lookup value is in cell C2 then your range should start with C."
But sometimes I want to be able to do dual-direction lookups. Ie, lookup using a key in column A to get the value in column B AND at the same time, in other formulas, lookup the value in B to get the value in A.
The only way I know is to add a column C which mirrors A, then use AB for the first lookup, and BC for the second lookup. But there has to be some cleaner solution. Is there some way to force VLOOKUP to use a different column other than the first one to find the key value, or is there a different function that would allow the equivalent?
As a side note, I am asking about Excel, but I actually use LibreOffice. Presumably the functions should be identical, but an answer that also works in LibreOffice would be preferable.
INDEX/MATCH will do it any direction of search.
So for your example of B --> A:
=INDEX(A:A,MATCH(yourCriteria,B:B,0))
The MATCH returns the row number of the match. The third Criterion of 0 is optional. The 0 is the same as FALSE for the forth criterion of VLOOKUP, in that it looks for an exact match.
The default is 1 with the data sorted it will return the match that is less than or equal to the criteria Like VLOOKUP's TRUE.
From that the INDEX finds and returns the correct value.
With the introduction of the Dynamic Array formula XLOOKUP we can use:
=XLOOKUP(yourCriteria,B:B,A:A,"",0)
The blue columns is the data given and the red columns is what is being calculated. Then the table to the right is what I am referencing. So, F2 will be calculated by the following steps:
Look at the Machinery column (D), if the cell contains LF, select column K, otherwise select column L
Look at the Grade column (E), if the cell contains RG, select rows 4:8, otherwise select rows 9:12.
Look at the Species column (A), if the cell contains MS, select rows 5 and 10, otherwise.......
Where every the most selected cell is in columns K and L, copy into column F.
Multiply column F by column C.
I don't want to make another column for my final result. I did in the picture to show the two steps separately. So column F should be the final answer (F2 = 107.33). The reference table can be formatted differently as well.
At first, I tried using nested-if statements, but realized that I would have like 20+ if statements for all the different outcomes. I think I would want to use the SEARCH function to find weather of not the cell contains a specific piece of information. Then I would probably use some sort of combination of match, if, v-lookup, index, search, but I am not sure how to condense these.
Any suggestion?
SUMPRODUCT is the function you need. I quickly created some test data on the lines of what you shared like this:
Then I entered the below formula in cell F2
=SUMPRODUCT(($I$4:$I$9=E2)*($J$4:$J$9=LEFT(A2,FIND(" ",A2)-1))*IF(ISERROR(FIND("LF",D2,1)),$L$4:$L$9,$K$4:$K$9))
The formula may look a little scary but is indeed very simple as each sub formula checks for a condition that you would want to evaluate. So, for example,
($I$4:$I$9=E2)
is looking for rows that match GRADE of the current row in range $I$4:$I$9 and so on. The * ensures that the arrays thus returned are multiplied and only the value where all conditions are true remains.
Since some of your conditions require looking for partial content like in Species and Machine, I have used Left and Find functions within Sumproduct
This formula simply returns the value from either column K or L based on the matching conditions and you may easily extend it or add more conditions.
Something I've wanted to do quite a bit lately, and can't work out how to do, is MATCH in a column I pass as an argument. Essentially, I have a two dimensional array, and I want to be able to find the first occurrence of a given value in the nth column, for any given value of n, and return the row number it occurs at. Alternatively (and more-or-less equivalently), I want to be able to search in the column with a given column header. Is there any way to do this?
Effectively, I want to simulate the non-existent function =MATCH(lookup_value,lookup_array,lookup_column,[match_type])
I've kludged together a horrible bodge job using INDIRECT, which works, but offends me horribly.
=MATCH(lookup_value,INDIRECT("R"&<top of array>&"C"&<left of array>+<column reference>&":R"&<bottom of array>&"C"&<left of array>+<column reference>,FALSE),FALSE)
This formula should work for you and will avoid INDIRECT. Anytime you can avoid using Indirect, I recommend doing so.
=MATCH(lookup_value,INDEX(lookup_array,0,MATCH(lookup_header,array_headers,0)),0)
If you aren't looking up the column by column header and just have the column number, then it becomes easier:
=MATCH(lookup_value,INDEX(lookup_array,0,column_number),0)
You could do something like this:
Set findCell = ActiveSheet.Range("A:Z").Find(What:="term_to_search")
Will select a header based on your search term.
Set range = ActiveSheet.Range(findCell, findCell.Offset(DEF_MAX_ROWS, 0))
Set up a range which will search from that header down a whole column.
For column references beyond Z you might switch notation (Excel Options, Formulas, Working with formulas and check R1C1 reference style) and, assuming the value to be looked up is in 'A1' (R1C1) with the column number in 'A2' (R2C1) apply:
=MATCH(R1C1,INDIRECT("C"&R2C1,0),0)
to save some complexity in converting a string of two or three characters into the relevant column number.
Say we have a two dimensional array: B3:E17 and we wish to locate Happiness in the third column of that array.In G1 enter:
B3:E17
In G2 enter:
3
In G3 enter:
=ADDRESS(ROW(INDIRECT(G1)),COLUMN(INDIRECT(G1))+$G$2-1) & ":" & ADDRESS(ROW(INDIRECT(G1))+ROWS(INDIRECT(G1))-1,COLUMN(INDIRECT(G1))+$G$2-1)
This will display the address of that third column. Then in G4 enter:
=MATCH("Happiness",INDIRECT(G3),0)
For example:
You can specify a range in a formula using the INDIRECT function. So, for example, if you put the letter designation for the column you want to search in cell A75, you could use:
=MATCH("Value_To_Match", INDIRECT(A75 & ":" & A75), 0)
So, if the value in A75 is G, the string built up in the INDIRECT call is G:G, and the MATCH will look through column G for "Value_To_Match" and return the row number in which it's found.
Using this idea, you can put a formula into A75 that generates the column designation for the column you want to search. For example, if your column headers are all in row 1, and the header you want to search for is in A74, you can do:
=CHAR(MATCH(A74, 1:1, 0) + 64)
using the CHAR function to convert numbers into ASCII characters, so 65 becomes A, 66 becomes B, etc. Note that this will only work if you don't have columns past Z. You'd need a more fussy formula to do the right thing with AA, etc.
You can overcome the annoyances of dealing with column letters by using R1C1 notation instead, which you can activate by adding a second parameter of FALSE to the INDIRECT expression. Now, instead of specifying your column by a letter, you'll specify it using a number. This simplifies the column-finder in A75:
=MATCH(A74, 1:1, 0)
and also the INDIRECT expression in your overall MATCH:
=MATCH("Value_To_Match", INDIRECT("C" & A75, FALSE), 0)
Hi All,
I have a table for employee scores levels (Table D1 to F6), there is points for each level, for example score (4.60) will be in the 3rd level which has (3) points.
I want to write a formula in the column (B) to check in the table an return the point value from the column F, You can see the examples in D2 & D3.
Regards
Adel
What you need is one of the most awesome functions ever invented... VLOOKUP
=VLOOKUP(A2,$D$2:$F$6,3, TRUE)
(Paste in B2 and drag down)
Quick explanation of the arguments.
A2 is the value we're going to be looking up in the table
$D$2:$F$6 is the "table" we're going to be looking up. It's going to search the first column of it (You could have anything you wanted in Column D, VLOOKUP Only looks at the first column).
3 is the column number of our table that contains the answers we want to be looking up, and returning (in this case, F).
TRUE means we want to search ranges, not just exact values. If it was FALSE then we'd only get the numbers we wanted if we entered the precise scores.
Of course, using this method, there isn't any upper bounds to it, a value of say 20 would give us the last row (i.e. 5 points), however, you could fix this easily using an IF statement.
=IF(A2 > $E$6, "N/A", VLOOKUP(A2,$D$2:$F$6,3, TRUE))
This could of course be done a bit neater if you believed you were going to be adding more rows to the table later, but it works for now.
Use the Below formula in cell B2:
=VLOOKUP(A2,$D$2:$F$6,3, TRUE)
I need to assign a status to a row based on a VLOOKUP query between two worksheets. The problem is that the identifier is not always unique. However, the identifier + a date value should be unique. I wanted to use:
=VLOOKUP(A3&H3,'OtherSheet'!D:E,1,FALSE)
with A3 being the identifier and H3 being the corresponding date. D in the other sheet is the identifier and E is the date column. However, I keep getting #N/A.
Does this mean that there are no matches with the "identifier+date" or is Excel looking for "identifier+date" in either column D or E? If the latter is true, how can I let Excel concatenate D and E when matching to the search pattern?
There's work around without using CTRL+Shift+Enter.
Use this formula that will match A3 in D column of othersheet and H3 with the date in column E of the othersheet.
=INDEX(OtherSheet!F:F,MATCH(1,INDEX((OtherSheet!D:D=A3)*(OtherSheet!E:E=H3),),0))
The formula will return data from F column of OtherSheet.
You can modify the range OtherSheet!F:F as appropriate.
That formula is looking to find A3 concatenated with H3 (identifier&date) in OtherSheet ColumnD that contains only identifiers, so will inevitably fail. Yes, Excel is looking for “identifier+date” in column D.
Excel will happily concatenate A3 with H3 ‘on the fly’ (within a formula) but will not so happily concatenate OtherSheet ColumnD and ColumnE values in the same way. The conventional solution, because usually simplest in a case like this, is to prepare for the VLOOKUP by adding a helper column that concatenates the D and E values while preserving these in the same row as the value sought.
Because VLOOKUP will only look to the right this is usually a column that is added to the left of the value being searched for, so say either in C or by insertion of a column immediately to the right of C. However, since you are only checking a single column the location is not critical. You might add this (in OtherSheet) as ColumnZ, with a formula such as:
=D2&E2
copied down to suit*. Again because you are only checking a single column it does not matter which row such a formula is placed in.
However, because only checking whether A3&H3 exists in OtherSheet a simple alternative may be to apply COUNTIFS:
=COUNTIFS(OtherSheet!D:D,A3,OtherSheet!E:E,H3)
Any result other than 0 from this should indicate that the combination being tested for exists in OtherSheet – without need for a helper column.
* Depending on the format of your identifiers it is possible that concatenation may introduce ambiguity. For example ID90 concatenated with 11/1/15 may not be distinguishable from ID901 concatenated with 1/1/15, so it may be advisable if taking this approach to introduce a delimiter, in both the VLOOKUP formula (say A3&"|"&H3 rather than just A3&H3) and therefore also in the helper column, say =D2&"|"&E2.
You likely would want to use Index/Match instead. Vlookup is tricky when it comes to searches for multiple things. Here's the way you would use Index/Match:
Without knowing how your spreadsheet is set up, here's how you could do it:
If I understand correctly, you want to use A3 to find the match in OtherSheet!D, and H3's match in OtherSheet!E. Index match is perfect for this. Instead of vLookup, use
=Index(OtherSheet!D:D&","&Text(OtherSheet!E:E,"mm-dd-yyyy"),Match(A3&H3,OtherSheet!D&OtherSheet!E,0)), and enter with CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER.
What the Index() will return is the concatenated Identifier and Date, separated with a comma. If, though, you have a table like this:
That index/match formula will return "Batman". The index to return is the named range G2:G5. You're looking for a match on A1 (the Identifier) and B1 (the Date), then you're searching for (in the order you just put) the Identifier to be in the range E2:E5, and the Date to be in F2:F5. When there's a match for both, it returns the name in G2:G5.
Here's a link to a site on using Index/Match, and another and its advantages over vlookup.