A Vlook up question

[thinker_t20]

I have to use the data called authorised codes to look up batch ids in another worksheet, the list is huge, but the authorised codes are not unique and often repeat for other transactions, when i use vlook up it takes the first value for the codes which repeat more than once,and i need to manually go through the whole list of data to match again, is there any alternate formulas out there which will help me?Thanks

 

[neeraj_chow]

Vlookup only retrieves the first matched instance. I have also faced similar challenges in the past. The possible workaround is to concatenate values in two or more columns till the time the concatenated string becomes unique. This process is to be done both for the list from where the look up is performed and in the table from where the values are to be retrieved. A caveat here is in order -- this concatenated string needs to be the first column of the table.

 

[Peter_SSs]

I have to use the data called authorised codes to look up batch ids in another worksheet, the list is huge, but the authorised codes are not unique and often repeat for other transactions, when i use vlook up it takes the first value for the codes which repeat more than once,and i need to manually go through the whole list of data to match again, is there any alternate formulas out there which will help me?Thanks

See if this helps:
http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1511354#post1511354

 

[thinker_t20]

Thanks will try it

 

[thinker_t20]

Thanks will try it out !!