Turning an excel formula into a VBA function - excel

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

Related

Sum of a specific range that changes on each iteration of a loop

I have a sheet that the values of a range change each time I change a specific cell. Let's say that the cell C8 is an indentity of a person and column H the scheduled monthly repayments. I need to find the aggregate monthly repayments, hence on each possible value of C8 (and that actually means for every person as you can think of different values of C8) I need the aggegate of repayments, hence the aggegate of cell Hi Hence, keeping row i constant and changing cell C8, I always need to sum Hi. So I actually need sum(Hi) (i constant and the index of the sum is cell c8, so if c8 takes value from 1 to 200, I need the sum(Hi(c8)), again row i . Hi(c8) it is just a notation to show you that Hi depends on the value of c8. The actual formula in cell H10 is INDEX('Sheet2'!R:R,MATCH('Sheet1'!$C$8,'Sheet2'!F:F,0)))). H11 and onwards have the same formula with slight twists for the fact that the repayments are not always equal, but the index function remains the same.
Then, the total of H10 for all possible values of c8 is pasted in c17, the total of H11 is pasted in C18 etc. Please find some images below, maybe that helps to support what I try to achieve. enter image description here
I have the following code for that purpose. Note that the above example was just to explain you a bit the background, the cells and the range that changes are different.
sub sumloop()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Application.DisplayStatusBar = False
Sheets("Sheet1").Range("C8").Value = 1
Dim i, k As Integer
i = 1
k = Sheets("Sheet1").Range("C9").Value
Dim LR As Long
LR = Sheets("Sheet1").Range("C" &
Sheets("Sheet1").Rows.Count).End(xlUp).row
Sheets("Sheet1").Range("C17:C" & LR).ClearContents
Do While i <= k
If (Sheets("Sheet1").Range("J9").Value = "") Then
Sheets("Sheet1").Range("h10:h200").Copy
Sheets("Sheet1").Range("c17").PasteSpecial
Paste:=xlValues, Operation:=xlAdd, SkipBlanks:= _
False, Transpose:=False
Else
Sheets("Sheet1").Range("h9:h200").Copy
Sheets("Sheet1").Range("c17").PasteSpecial
Paste:=xlValues, Operation:=xlAdd, SkipBlanks:= _
False, Transpose:=False
End If
Sheets("Sheet1").Range("C8").Value = Sheets("Sheet1").Range("C8").Value+1
i = i + 1
Loop
Sheets("Sheet1").Range("C8").Value = 1
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
Application.DisplayStatusBar = True
End Sub
The if inside of the loop is needed as the location of the first value of the range depends on some criteria which have not to do with the code. Also k denotes the maximum number of possible values. What I need is approximately 250.
While the code works, it takes approximately 40 seconds to run for 84 values of cell C8 and approximately 1.5 minute for 250. I tried some things, changed do while to for but nothing significant, used variable ranges instead of fixed ones like h10:h100, very similar to what I do with Sheet1.Range(C17:C&LR). Again no significant changes. As I am very new to vba I don't know if 1.5 minutes are a lot for such a simple code, but to me it seems a lot and this analysis is needed for 10 different combinations of 250 different values for cell c8, which means 15 minutes approximately.
I would appreciate if anyone can suggest me something faster.
Thank you very much in advance.
Here is a complete solution, with explainations in comments.
Because we do not have you source spreadsheet, I could not run any tests on this.
Option Explicit 'This forces you to declare all your varaibles correctly. It may seem annoying at first glance, but will quickly save you time in the future.
Sub sumloop()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
'Application.DisplayStatusBar = False -> This is not noticely slowing down your code as soon as you do not refresh the StatusBar value for more than say 5-10 times per second.
'Save the existing Calculation Mode to restore it at the end of the Macro
Dim xlPreviousCalcMode As XlCalculation
xlPreviousCalcMode = Application.Calculation
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
'Conveniently store the Sheet into a variable. You might want to do the same with your cells, for example: MyCellWhichCounts = MySheet.Range("c17")
Dim MySheet As Worksheet
MySheet = ActiveWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1")
MySheet.Range("C8").Value2 = 1 'It is recommended to use.Value2 instead of .Value (notably in case your data type is Currency, but it is good practice to use that one all the time)
Dim LR As Long
LR = MySheet.Range("C" & MySheet.Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row 'Be carefull with "MySheet.Rows.Count", it may go beyond your data range, for example if you modify the formatting of a cell below your "last" row.
MySheet.Range("C17:C" & LR).Value2 = vbNullString 'It is recommended to use vbNullString instead of ""; although I agree it makes it more difficult to read.
Dim i As Integer, k As Integer 'Integers are ok, just make sure you neer exceed 255
k = MySheet.Range("C9").Value2
For i = 1 To k 'Use a For whenever you can, it is easier to maintain (i.e. avoid errors and also for you to remember when you go back to it years later)
'Little extra so you can track progress of your calcs
Dim z As Integer
z = 10 'This can have any value > 0. If the value is low, you will refresh your app often but it will slow down. If the value is high, it won't affect performance but your app might freeze and/or you will not have your Statusbar updated as often as you might like. As a rule of thumb, I aim to refresh around 5 times per seconds, which is enough for the end user not to notice anything.
If i Mod z = 0 Then 'Each time i is a mutliple of z
Application.StatusBar = "Calculating i = " & i & " of " & k 'We refresh the Statusbar
DoEvents 'We prevent the Excel App to freeze and throw messages like: The application is not responding.
End If
'Set the range
Dim MyResultRange As Range
If (MySheet.Range("J9").Value2 = vbNullString) Then
MyResultRange = MySheet.Range("h10:h200")
Else
MyResultRange = MySheet.Range("h9:h200")
End If
'# Extract Result Data
MyResultRange.Calculate 'Refresh the Range values
Dim MyResultData As Variant
MyResultData = MyResultRange.Value2 'Store the values in VBA all at once
'# Extract Original Data
Dim MyOriginalRange as Range
MyOriginalRange.Calculate
MyOriginalRange = MySheet.Range("c17").Resize(MyResultRange.Rows.Count,MyResultRange.Columns.Count) 'This produces a Range of the same size as MyResultRange
Dim MyOriginalData as Variant
MyOriginalData = MyOriginalRange.Value2
'# Sum Both Data Arrays
Dim MySumData() as Variant
Redim MySumData(lbound(MyResultRange,1) to ubound(MyResultRange,1),lbound(MyResultRange,2) to ubound(MyResultRange,2))
Dim j as long
For j = lbound(MySumData,1) to ubound(MySumData,1)
MySumData(j,1)= MyResultData(j,1) + MyOriginalData(j,1)
Next j
'Instead of the "For j = a to b", you could use this, but might be slower: MySumData = Application.WorksheetFunction.MMult(Array(1, 1), Array(MyResultData, MyOriginalData))
MySheet.Range("C8").Value2 = MySheet.Range("C8").Value2 + 1
Next i
MySheet.Range("C8").Value2 = 1
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
Application.StatusBar = False 'Give back the status bar control to the Excel App
Application.Calculation = xlPreviousCalcMode 'Do not forget to restore the Calculation Mode to its previous state
End Sub
Added by OP (see comments)
Image 1 Code written in the initially question. enter image description here
Image 2 Code above enter image description here
OK, A few things.
Firstly, Dim i, k As Integer doesn't do what you think it does, you need to do: Dim i As Integer, k As Integer
Secondly don't use Integer in VBA use Long so Dim i As Long, k As Long
Third the calculations are killing you. Turn them off with Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual at the start of your code and back on with Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic at the end of your code.
Now we are presented with really fast code but the problem that it doesn't update on each iteration which you need it to do. You can calculate just a range like so: Sheets("Sheet1").Range("h10:h200").Calculate so put that in just before you copy the range
There will be an even faster way to do this but I just can't seem to wrap my head around your requirements so I am unable to assist further.
Welcome to StackOverflow.
I must admit I got a bit confused by your narrative, as I did not fully understand if you are doing a sum(a,b,c) or a sum(sum(a,b,c), sum(d,e,f), ...).
In any cases, a trick that will dramatically accelerate your script is the use of arrays.
Performing calcs with VBA is not slow, but retrieving the data from Excel (communicating with the application) IS slow, and pretty much depending on the number of "requests", rather than the quantity of data requested.
You can use arrays to request the data from a range all at once, isntead of requesting the value of each cell separately.
Dim Arr() As Variant
Arr = Range("A1:E999")
It is as simple as this.
Give it a try and if you are still struggling let us know.
BONUS
If you are new to Arrays, keep in mind you can have a two-dimmensionnal array:
Dim 2DArray(0 to 10, 0 to 50)
Or a stacked array (an array of arrays):
Dim MyArray() as String
Dim StackedArray() as MyArray
Dim StackedArray() as Variant
You will need a 2D-Array for extracting the data from a range, but I feel you may need an Array of 2D-Arrays for your Sum of Sums.
Some recommended reading: https://excelmacromastery.com/excel-vba-array/
How to achieve the same through pivot charts (no VBA)
Step 1
First, you must organize your data in a specific way, where each column is a field, and each row is a data entry. If you are not familiar with databases, this is the most tricky point as you may arrange your data in different ways.
Long story short, we will take an example where you have 3 customers and 4 dates.
So that is 12 data entries, which will provide the repayment value for each of the possible customer ID and date.
Step 2
Select that data and insert a PivotChart.
Note: you could insert a PivotTable alone, or a PivotChart alone. I recommend the option hwere you insert both, as managing your data will be more intuitive when working on the Chart. The table is updated at the same time you update the chart.
Step 3
Make sure the all your data is selected, including the top row which will dictate the name of each field (the name of each column).
Step 4
A new sheet has just been create, and you can see where both your PivotTble and PivotCharts will appear. Select the chart.
Step 5
A menu to the right will appear (it might have already been there, so make sure you selected the Chart and not the Table, as that menu would be slightly different).
Step 6
Drag and drop the field names into the categories as shown.
What you are doing here is telling Excel what data you want to see (Values) and how you want to break it down (per date, and per customer).
Step 7
By default dates data is always groupped quartile and year. To be able to see all the date we have data for, you can click the [+] near the data on the Table: this will show more details for both the table and the chart.
Step 8
But we want to get completely rid of the quartils and years. In order to achieve this, you need to right click any value of your date column in the Table, and choose "Ungroup" as displayed.
Step 9
Your data now looks like this.
Note the time axis is not on scale. For example if you hae monthly data and a month is missing, there will be no gap. This is one of the difficulties with Pivot data. This can be overcomes, but it is off topic here.
Step 10
Now we want to have a cumulative view of the data, so we want to play with the way the values are proessed by Excel.
Select the chart, then in the right panel: right click on the "Sum of Repayment" field, and select "Value Field Settings".
Step 11
In the "Show Values As" tab, select "Show values as" "Running Tital In".
Then choose "Date".
Here we are telling Excel that the value to display should be a cumulative total, cumulated according to the "Date" field.
Press OK.
Step 12
You now have what you are looking for. If you look in the Table, you have one column per Customer ID, and one row per date. For a given Date, you have the cumulative repayment made by a given Customer ID. At the very right, you have the Grand Total, which is, for a given date, the sum of all the Customer ID values.
Step 13
The Chart keeps showing the cumulative payment per CUstomer ID, and we cannot see the grand total.
In orer to achieve this, simply remove the "Customer ID" field from the "Legend (Series)" category area in the Fields Panel, as shown. (you can untick the Customer Id [x] box, or you can drag and drop it from the category area to the main list area).
Step 14
Now we only have the Grand total in the chart. But why?
If you display the "Value Field Settings" of Sum of Repyament" (Step 10), the first tab "Summarize Values By" will tell Excel what to do when several value meet the same Legend and Axis values.
Now that we removed the Customer ID field from the Legend area, for each date, we have 3 repayment values (one for each Customer ID). In the field settings, we tell Excel to use a "Sum". So it returns the sum of the 3 values.
But you could play around and return the Average, or even use "Count", which will show you how many records you have (it will return 3).
That is why pivot charts are so powerful: with only a few clicks and/or drag and drop, you can display a myriad of different graphics for your data.
For future interest, you should look online for Filters, and "Insert Slicer" (which is equivalent to filtering, but will add button directly on your chart: great when showing the data to colleagues and switch from one setting to another)
Hope this helped!

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

Returning multiple values using Vlookup in 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

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

Get maximum value of columns in Excel with macro

First of all I have no idea of writing macros in excel, but now I have to write a code for a friend. So here we go.
In my excel sheet I have a table which holds some producers as columns and 12 months of the year as rows. In their intersecting cell it's written the amount of products produced by the producer during that month. Now I need to find maximum and minimum values of produced goods within each month and output the producers of that goods.
I found a code for a similar problem, but I don't understand it clearly and it has errors.
Here is the code:
Sub my()
Dim Rng As Range, Dn As Range, Mx As Double, Col As String
Set Rng = Range(Range("A1"), Range("A6").End(xlUp))
ReDim ray(1 To Rng.Count)
For Each Dn In Rng
Mx = Application.Max(Dn)
Select Case Mx
Case Is = Dn.Offset(, 0): Col = "A"
Case Is = Dn.Offset(, 1): Col = "B"
Case Is = Dn.Offset(, 2): Col = "C"
Case Is = Dn.Offset(, 3): Col = "D"
End Select
ray(Dn.Row - 1) = Col
Next Dn
Sheets("Sheet2").Range("A2").Resize(Rng.Count) = Application.Transpose(ray)
End Sub
I get the following error:
Run-time error'9': Subscript out of range.
So my question is, what does this error mean and what do I need to change in this code to work?
EDIT1:
OK, now the error is gone. But where do I get the results?
EDIT2
I know this line is responsible for inserting the results in specified place, but I cant see them after execution. What's wrong with that?
Error means the array you are trying to access has not been defined to contain the ordinal you're looking for: For example Array 10 has positions 0-9 so if I try and access array(10) it would throw that error or array(-1) it would throw that error.
I can't remember if excel is 0 or 1 based arrays.
Possibly change
ray(Dn.Row - 1) = Col
to
if dn.row-1<> 0 then ' or set it to <0 if zero based.
ray(Dn.Row - 1) = Col
end if
You don't need VBA (a macro) to do this. It can be done using a worksheet formula.
E.g.
If your producers are P1,P2,P3,P4 and your sheet looks like this:-
A B C D E F
+-------------------------------------------
1 | Month P1 P2 P3 P4 Top Producer
2 | Jan 5 4 3 2
3 | Feb 2 3 5 1
4 | Mar 6 4 4 3
...
...
The following formula placed in cells F2,F3,F4,... will pick out the top producer in each month.
=INDEX($B$1:$E$1,MATCH(MAX(B2:E2),B2:E2,0))
Generally it's better to try and use built in Excel functionality where possible. Resort to VBA only if you really need to. Even if you were to use the top producer/month data for some other operation which is only possible in VBA, at least the top producer/month data derivation is done for you by the worksheet, which will simplify the VBA required for the whole process.
Transposing a range can also be done using a worksheet formula by using the TRANSPOSE() function.
BTW - I'm not sure what you want to do if two producers have the same output value. In the VBA example in your question, the logic seems to be:- if two producers are joint top in a month, pick the first one encountered. The formula I've given above should replicate this logic.
I have used these functions quite extensively and they are very reliable and fast:
Public Function CountRows(ByRef r As Range) As Integer
CountRows = r.Worksheet.Range(r, r.End(xlDown)).Rows.Count
End Function
Public Function CountColumns(ByRef r As Range) As Integer
CountColumns = r.Worksheet.Range(r.End(xlToRight), r).Columns.Count
End Function
Give it a reference (ex. "A2") and it will return the filled cells down, or the the right until and empty cell is found.
To select multiple sells I usually do something like
Set r = Range("A2")
N = CountRows(r)
Set r = r.Resize(N,1)

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