small excel question

[stevejh123]

I need help with a small formula.

What I need to know is how would I take the value of cell (B) if the value in cell (A) = what i tell it.

Like

if a cell in coloum a = mike then give me the number beside it in coloum B
So what I would need is if coloum A1:A100= mike then give me the number beside mike in coloum B that would be 5

A B
1 mike 5
2 bob 2
3 jim 3
4
5

Thanks

Steve

 

[saranat]

have you tried the VLOOKUP formula?
vlookup(A1,A1:B10,2)
This gives the value in cell Bx that corresponds to Ax
saranat

 

[BuddieB]

There are a number of ways you can do this but most depend on how many variations you are going to have, if you only have a couple of variaitions the easiest way is to use an IF statement:

put this formula in B1
=IF(A1="MIKE",7)

if you want to put a 7 in column B anytime column A has the value MIKE

 

[Joe Was]

In any cell that is not "A or B" put:
=IF(A1="Mike",B1,"")

 

[Scott Huish]

Are there one or many matches?

If you want the sum of all the matches:

=SUMIF(A1:A100,"mike",B1:B100)

If you want the number from the first match, perhaps:

=VLOOKUP("mike",A1:B100,2,0)