Compare two columns, if a match replace one with another cell beside - excel

Question

I am trying to add category codes to text categories in an excel spreadsheet. I have a column A with all the category names in text, including duplicates. I have column B with all the category names in text, not including duplicates and I have column C which has the category codes not including duplicates. Each code in column C alligns with its category in column B
For example:
A:
Domestic Ware
B:
Agri Tools
C:
051
051 is the code for agri tools. I want to take the string in column A, Search for this string in column B and then replace the string that was in column A with the code in C.
Is there anyway to do this using VBA or excels built in functions?

Answer 1

Since you want to replace values in column A, give this small macro a try:
Sub FixColumnA()
Dim nA As Long, nB As Long, v As Variant
Dim i As Long, j As Long
nA = Cells(Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Row
nB = Cells(Rows.Count, "B").End(xlUp).Row
For i = 1 To nA
With Cells(i, "A")
v = .Value
For j = 1 To nB
If v = Cells(j, "B").Value Then
.Value = Cells(j, "C").Value
End If
Next j
End With
Next i
End Sub

Answer 2

If column A contains a list of Category names including duplicates, and columns B & C contain (the same) category names and Category ID's without duplicates (i.e. a "category code table"), you can
in column D (or maybe better insert a new column between A and B)
for each entry in A you enter =VLOOKUP(Ax,$B$y:$C$z,2,FALSE)
whereby
x = current row number
y = starting row of "category code table"
z = end row of "category code table"
You make the coord's of the lookup table absolute to prevent y & z being changed as you copy the formula down.