PLEASE help me undestand this formula!

Rick, the 3rd VLOOKUP argument is the nth lookup table
column from which a value will be returned. In
you 1st formula below A2 is compared against the
values in column J, and the corresponding value in
column K is returned because it's the 2nd column
in the range, $J$1:$L$6.

Thanks Mark,
If I wanted to add a 4th column,(Column L) what
would it look like? I have tried and get nothing but
errors!!
Thanks in Advance!!!

Column L is already a part of your lookup table --
it's the 3rd column. If you need to expand the
lookup table to include 4 column you'd use $J$1:$M$6
as your 2nd argument instead of $J$1:$L$6. I've
made this change to your VLOOKUP() below:

=IF(A2<>"",VLOOKUP($A2,$J$1:$M$6,2,FALSE),"")

That ugly formula looks familiar! The vLook is composed of 3 arguments

1 = What you want to look up (Whats in A2)
2 = The range you want to look up from (j1..L6). To add another row you can make the J6..M6, etc. The first column of this range must contain the value you are looking up. Ie column J should have what matchs your value in cell A2. This list should always be sorted.
3 = What column number you want to return the value from. Ie enter a 1, the value from J is returned, 2 the value from K is returned etc.

So to add and look up a fourth value like sodium, put in the table in column M and your look up formula would be
=IF(A2<>"",VLOOKUP($A2,$J$1:$M$6,4,FALSE),"")

The if statement is just one of a few way to make it look good until your user enters something from the drop down list.

Good luck.

Ian: Why does it look familiar to you? Just curious.

Aladin

I suggested it to him a few days ago (12982.html)