Wildcard selection from a list

[sterling]

I have a large list of similar coded parts.
I can find individual items with vlookup etc but the code has to be exactly right.

Is it possible to extract from the list all the parts that match with , say, the first 3 characters, and then to select the one you want from there.

Thank you

 

[Andrew Poulsom]

You could try an array formula:

=VALUE(VLOOKUP(A5,LEFT(A1:B3,LEN(A5)),2))

which returns the value in column B of range A1:B3 which matches the contents of cell A5. To use it press Ctrl+Shift+Enter not just Enter.

The result will depend on how your data table is sorted.