Calulating data validation cell with multiple selection

[bakkhos]

Hi there,

I am not an excel expert or progarmmer, so I may not be explaining this well.

Essentially, here is my case. I have a cell that contains multiple selection using data validation from a list.

This list contains say names of employees, and each of this employee has a different hourly rate.

So, I would like to calculate the total cost of a task if I have 3 names selected in the cell, and each of them work for 3 hours each?

I am not able to find the right function or formula to calculate a cell that has multiple selection.

Can anyone help me?

 

[Gerald Higgins]

This would be much easier if you could avoid selecting all 3 names in the same cell, and instead selected each name in a separate cell.

 

[bakkhos]

you're right it would be easier. But I am trying to create a formula where I can estimate the cost for doing tasks within project where I have 3 different employees involved, and each employee would have a different hourly rate.

So, for example, for Project A, my spreadsheet would look like the following:

Colum A Column B Column C(hours) Column D (cost)
1. Task 1 Empl1 2 ?
2. Task 2 Empl1, employ2 4
3. task 3 Empl2, employ3 4

Column B is using data validation where I can select multiple employee names, so I would like to be able to calculate in Column D the total cost of the task if I by multiplying Column C to Column B, but I don't know how to do it when I have multiple values in column B.

Does anyone know how to do this?