Formula for looping all combinations of addition for each cell in a column until the loop equals the value in another cell?

[lonelyrobot99]

Here is the background of what I am trying to solve:

I am doing an accounting for a decedent's estate over several years. The estate account received dividend payments and would periodically issue checks comprised of several dividends from different companies with no details as to which dividends were a part of each check issued. As a hypothetical example there was a check issued for $896.14, and I know that some combination of 20 different dividends could be added together to equal $896.14

Is there a formula that I can use to find out the combination of dividends that make up the check?

The contents of A1 through A20 represent the value of dividends, some of which, but not all of which add up to equal 896.14:


196.73
71.54
245.25
109.47
42.87
59.46
238.74
83.21
91.47
124.88
236.87
138.78
61.35
146.45
93.89
167.22
114.82
65.64
74.62
86.65

The value in B1 is 896.14

If someone could provide me with a formula to solve this problem it would save me a lot of time because this is a recurring problem and it takes too long to solve through trial and error. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Peter_SSs]

I don't believe you will be able to do that with a formula. See if either of these ideas help.

http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44377

http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=4742