Formula help needed asap!

[meeshes]

We have 2 sheets, Sheet 1 contains 2 columns, district #s and district names. Sheet 2 only contains district #s.

We want to populate Sheet 2 with the district names that are tied to the district #s in sheet 1. We need this completed ASAP. What is the fastest way to do this without having to manually input all the district names. Please help. Attached is a small sample of the workbook with the two sheets. We need the formula as it needs to be implemented on a sheet with thousands of fields. HELP!!!

 

[VoG]

Try VLOOKUP http://www.contextures.com/xlFunctions02.html

 

[Misca]

First make sure your data on Sheet1 is sorted in ascending order by the district number (also, make sure your district numbers are actual numbers, not text). Then in Sheet2 you can use VLOOKUP to get matches:

Excel Workbook
	A	B	C	D	E
1	District#	District Name		Lookup Values:	Formulas:
2	00000	District1		01500	District3
3	00500	District2		560	District2
4	01200	District3
5	24000	District4
6	30000	District5
Sheet

Notice: I've formatted the first lookup District# as text. Therefore I'm using the VALUE-function to make sure the formula returns the right match.

 

[meeshes]

Misca, thank you for the reply, where are the lookup value numbers derived from?

 

[Misca]

I'm using TRUE as the argument in VLOOKUP (it's also the default argument of the function). It means that if there's no exact match found, the VLOOKUP returns the first smaller match: Think of it as the function was running down the numbers 'till it finds a bigger one - and then takes one step back. The function doesn't look further down the list but turns back after the first value that's bigger than the one it's looking for. Even if there's an exact match somewhere down the list. That's why the list has to be sorted.

If you're sure all your lookup values are identical to the ones in the list, you can change the TRUE to FALSE to make the function look for exact matches only. With FALSE the list doesn't have to be sorted but you will get an error for each lookup value that's not found from the lookup list.