Referencing another Sheet to Generate a Graph

[TheDuckett]

I work for a staffing company and I've been tasked with creating a spreadsheet that we can use to track to number of employees with certain clearances/badges by trade. At the moment, all I have is a text-based spreadsheet that lists the employee's name, trade, clearance/badge type, and their contact info.

My idea was to have all of the employee's info on one sheet, and use another sheet to track certain information from the first sheet (# of certain trade, # of certain trade with particular credential, # of workeres with any particular credential, etc.) and then formulate graphs from the formulas on the 2nd sheet.

The problem im encountering is that I have no idea what formulas to use to reference certain information on the first 1st sheet, namely because Its all text. Also, how would I be able to get the total # of a certain trade with a certain clearance? It sounds like it might be kind of complex. And how would I have to input it so that its graph-able?

If you need any more info, please ask. Your help is appreciated. Thank you!

 

[grizle]

Not too difficult.

Start with your first spreadsheet in this format or similar:
<b>Excel 2003</b><table cellpadding="2.5px" rules="all" style=";background-color: #FFFFFF;border: 1px solid;border-collapse: collapse; border-color: #A6AAB6"><colgroup><col width="25px" style="background-color: #E0E0F0" /><col /><col /><col /><col /><col /></colgroup><thead><tr style=" background-color: #E0E0F0;text-align: center;color: #161120"><th></th><th>A</th><th>B</th><th>C</th><th>D</th><th>E</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr ><td style="color: #161120;text-align: center;">1</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="font-weight: bold;text-align: center;;">Clearance</td><td style="text-align: center;;"></td><td style="text-align: center;;"></td></tr><tr ><td style="color: #161120;text-align: center;">2</td><td style="font-weight: bold;text-decoration: underline;;">Name</td><td style="font-weight: bold;text-decoration: underline;;">Trade</td><td style="font-weight: bold;text-decoration: underline;;">Site 1</td><td style="font-weight: bold;text-decoration: underline;;">Site 2</td><td style="font-weight: bold;text-decoration: underline;;">Site3</td></tr><tr ><td style="color: #161120;text-align: center;">3</td><td style=";">Smith</td><td style=";">Fitter</td><td style=";">x</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td></tr><tr ><td style="color: #161120;text-align: center;">4</td><td style=";">Jones</td><td style=";">Electrician</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style=";">x</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td></tr><tr ><td style="color: #161120;text-align: center;">5</td><td style=";">Bloggs</td><td style=";">Electrician</td><td style=";">x</td><td style=";">x</td><td style=";">x</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="width:3.6em;font-weight:bold;margin:0;padding:0.2em 0.6em 0.2em 0.5em;border: 1px solid #A6AAB6;border-top:none;text-align: center;background-color: #E0E0F0;color: #161120">Sheet1</p><br /><br />
In your second sheet count the instances of each data type:
<b>Excel 2003</b><table cellpadding="2.5px" rules="all" style=";background-color: #FFFFFF;border: 1px solid;border-collapse: collapse; border-color: #A6AAB6"><colgroup><col width="25px" style="background-color: #E0E0F0" /><col /><col /><col /><col /><col /></colgroup><thead><tr style=" background-color: #E0E0F0;text-align: center;color: #161120"><th></th><th>A</th><th>B</th><th>C</th><th>D</th><th>E</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr ><td style="color: #161120;text-align: center;">1</td><td style="font-weight: bold;text-decoration: underline;;">Trade</td><td style="font-weight: bold;text-decoration: underline;;">Total</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="font-weight: bold;text-decoration: underline;;">Clearance</td><td style="font-weight: bold;text-decoration: underline;;">Total</td></tr><tr ><td style="color: #161120;text-align: center;">2</td><td style=";">Electrician</td><td style="text-align: right;;">2</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style=";">Site 1</td><td style="text-align: right;;">2</td></tr><tr ><td style="color: #161120;text-align: center;">3</td><td style=";">Fitter</td><td style="text-align: right;;">1</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style=";">Site 2</td><td style="text-align: right;;">2</td></tr><tr ><td style="color: #161120;text-align: center;">4</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style=";">Site 3</td><td style="text-align: right;;">1</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="width:3.6em;font-weight:bold;margin:0;padding:0.2em 0.6em 0.2em 0.5em;border: 1px solid #A6AAB6;border-top:none;text-align: center;background-color: #E0E0F0;color: #161120">Sheet2</p><br /><br /><table width="85%" cellpadding="2.5px" rules="all" style=";border: 2px solid black;border-collapse:collapse;padding: 0.4em;background-color: #FFFFFF" ><tr><td style="padding:6px" ><b>Worksheet Formulas</b><table cellpadding="2.5px" width="100%" rules="all" style="border: 1px solid;text-align:center;background-color: #FFFFFF;border-collapse: collapse; border-color: #A6AAB6"><thead><tr style=" background-color: #E0E0F0;color: #161120"><th width="10px">Cell</th><th style="text-align:left;padding-left:5px;">Formula</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><th width="10px" style=" background-color: #E0E0F0;color: #161120">B2</th><td style="text-align:left">=COUNTIF(<font color="Blue">Sheet1!B2:B50,A2</font>)</td></tr><tr><th width="10px" style=" background-color: #E0E0F0;color: #161120">B3</th><td style="text-align:left">=COUNTIF(<font color="Blue">Sheet1!B3:B50,A3</font>)</td></tr><tr><th width="10px" style=" background-color: #E0E0F0;color: #161120">E2</th><td style="text-align:left">=COUNTA(<font color="Blue">Sheet1!C3:C50</font>)</td></tr><tr><th width="10px" style=" background-color: #E0E0F0;color: #161120">E3</th><td style="text-align:left">=COUNTA(<font color="Blue">Sheet1!D3:D50</font>)</td></tr><tr><th width="10px" style=" background-color: #E0E0F0;color: #161120">E4</th><td style="text-align:left">=COUNTA(<font color="Blue">Sheet1!E3:E50</font>)</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></table><br />

A couple of tips:
Use a dropdown box to select the trade - any typos etc would not be added in to the totals.
If there are a limited possiblility for clearance options then drop down boxes could be used here but these check boxes allow for multiple clearances.

 

[TheDuckett]

Thank you, but I have one more question.

What should I do if someone has more than one Trade? (i.e.: "Painter, Rigger")
Because the first one on my list has 2 trades, and the second sheet only displays the "=COUNTIF(Sheet1!B2:B500,A2)" formula. There are several others with multiple trades as well. Also, is this going to count people more than once?

Thank you!

 

[TheDuckett]

Also, I forgot to mention:

I have the same setup as you did for the "Electrician" count (on sheet 2), but it just keeps showing the formula. Its spelled correctly, refers to the same cell range as all the other trade counters " =COUNTIF(Sheet1!C2:C500,A2) " (except "A2" instead of "A3,A4,A5.."), and I dont see anything wrong with it.

 

[grizle]

What should I do if someone has more than one Trade? (i.e.: "Painter, Rigger")

Either you could create two entries in sheet 1 for the man with two trades, one for each trade or treat it similarly to the security clearance and have a range of trades along the top, checking each appropriately.

Also, is this going to count people more than once?

Yes it will (as its designed here). What would you prefer it to do?

... it just keeps showing the formula

There has been a few old posts with this problem. The obvoius mistake would be an accidental typo with a leading ' forcing text format, but sorry, I haven't experienced that before.