Retrieving Values From Excel Merged Columns - excel

Question

I'm doing a hlookup against a value that spans multiple columns. My data is similar to this:
A B C D
---------------------------
1| Col1 Col2
2| x y z w
3|
4|
In rows 3 and 4 (A3, B3, C3, D3, etc.), I'd like to put formulas that will do an hlookup somewhere else in the workbook. The trick is, I'd like it to look up "Col1" for columns A and B and "Col2" for columns C and D. "Col1" is in A1, but is really A1 and B1 merged. When I reference A1, "Col1" appears, but when I reference B1, the return value is blank.
Any ideas?

Answer 1

Here is another solution that can also work when the merged cells are of different widths, let me illustrate with an example:
Open a fresh Excel, merge B1, C1, D1
Type Col1 in the merged cell
In B2, type formula =B1, and in C2 =C1, in D2 =D1
You should see B2 to be Col1 while C2, D2 are 0
In B3, type the formula =A3, copy it
Right-click the merged cell B1:D1, select "paste special -> formulas"
You should see the merged cell being 0
Type Col1 in the merged cell
You should now see all B2, C2, D2 to be Col1, i.e. now you can reference the merged cell as you expect it to be.
If you can multiple merged cells, each of different widths, just paste the formula to all of them in one go.
The reason behind this works is because of a perculier design choice by Microsoft. It seems that when you paste formulas in merged cells, each underlying cell receives the formula (in contrast, if you enter a value, only the top-left cell gets it) So you can use it at your advantage and paste a formula that reference the cell next to it, and then overwrite the top-left cell with the value you want, then every cell underlying the merged cell will have that value.

Answer 2

To get access to the "Col1" and "Col2" labels, you can use the following:
=INDEX($1:$1,1,COLUMN()-MOD(COLUMN()-1,2))
Note: This assumes that you are grouping together the same number of cells. If it were three cells, you would just change the last number in the formula to a 3, and so on.
Edit: Here's how it works:
INDEX($1:$1,1, x ) returns the value of the cell in row 1, column x. If your table is not actually located in the top left corner of the worksheet, you can change this to the actual range that includes all of your merged labels. In this case, it would be:
INDEX($A$1:$D$1,1, x )
COLUMN() returns the column number of the current cell (1 in column A, 2 in column B, etc.)
MOD(COLUMN()-1,x) returns an offset from the current column to the column that holds the proper label

Answer 3

I've built a simple function in vba that will solve this problem:
Function mergedText(rngMergedCell As Range)
If rngMergedCell.MergeCells = True Then
mergedText = rngMergedCell.MergeArea(1, 1)
Else
mergedText = rngMergedCell
End If
End Function
If the cell is a merged cell, the function will return the value in the first element of the merged cell - this is where the merged cell stores its value

Answer 4

A more generic variant of e.James's proposal is :
={INDEX($A$1:A1, 1, MAX(NOT(ISBLANK($A$1:A1))*COLUMN($A$1:A1)-COLUMN($A$1)+1))}
This relies on the fact that the merged cells are empty except for the first one (unless you are in a case like Martin's proposal).
Note: The curly braces are there to mark an array formula (do not enter them, just press alt+return to validate the formula in the cell).

Answer 5

I realize I am late to this thread but I found a really simple answer to this.
If, for example, your label is merged across 4 columns a1:d1, and if you reference b1, you will return "". For dynamically finding the right labels use this fx in your new table:
=if(OriginalTable!B1="",ThisTable!A1,OriginalTable!B1)
I am sure you will realize that this will capture ranges in e1:h1 etc as you drag across.
That's it. Hope it helps someone.

Answer 6

Cells B1 and D2 contain no values, only A1 and C1 have something inside them.
So you'll just have to make sure that your formulas in columns A and B both refer to A1 as the lookup value, and that your formulas in columns C and D both refer to C1 for the lookup value.

Answer 7

With the new dynamic reference, there are more options now. Here is a generic function I wrote that will search to the left of the cell and return the first value. It is NOT optimized, but it does the job for me.
=LET(
TargetCell, A1,
TargetRow, ROW(TargetCell),
TargetCol, COLUMN(TargetCell),
RowReference, INDIRECT(TargetRow & ":" & TargetRow),
RowValues, TRANSPOSE(FILTER(RowReference,ISBLANK(RowReference)=FALSE)),
RowValueColumns, MATCH(RowValues, RowReference,0),
ReturnColumn, MAX(FILTER(RowValueColumns,RowValueColumns<=TargetCol)),
Return, INDIRECT(ADDRESS(TargetRow,ReturnColumn)),
Return
)