Is this possible...freeze entry after lookup

[chef]

I'm trying to find a solution to an issue

I have a user enter an employee numbers in column I and could be as many as 14500 rows..I have a drop down in column J which is just from data validation.

I then autopulate columns K to T using a vlookup on the entries in column I

The issue I have is that the master dataset changes each month so an employee might be in Dept A this Month and Dept B next month so if I overwrite the masterdataset next month this will overwrite the original entry eg Dept A which I need...

I'm not sure if I am explaining too well...one question is that is there a way to freeze an entry as soon as vookup done and remove the vlookup formula after populated?

I might have to go down the route of various lookups for named ranges for each of the months but the datasets are big and around 14500 rows overall.

Not sure if there is a soultion for this but if anyone has any ideas I would be extremely grateful.

 

[oldbrewer]

if you use a helper column which equals 0 if no employees number entered, but 1 if the employee number is present, then a macro will detect the 1's and do a copy, paste special, values on the relevant cells

 

[chef]

Thank you for such a quick reply and I like the sound of that..

excuse my in experience with macros and vba....could you expand a little please if you dont mind and spell out how I would do that...

I can get to a helper column and put in formula so as you suggest put in 0 if no employee entered yet then a 1 if an employee number enterered.

So what do I do next re this macro to do a copy paste special?

im not really familiar with using macros/vba so a little nudge would be really helpful

grateful for any help

 

[oldbrewer]

number

name

detail1

detail2

detail3

helper

123

2

3

4

5

1

345

2

3

4

5

1

0

the first one in helper column

0

obtained by

0

=IF(E2="",0,1)

0

there are formulas in rows 2 to 7

assume the stuff in the details columns is from lookups

(it was to start with being either blank or a look up value)

this macro makes the values permanent

Sub Macro4()

'

' Macro4 Macro

' Macro recorded 13/04/2018 by bob

'

'

For j = 2 To 7

If Cells(j, 9) = 0 Then GoTo 50

For k = 1 To 4

Cells(j, k) = Cells(j, k)

Next k

50 Next j

End Sub

if you add a new number in row 4

just run the macro again

<colgroup><col width="64" span="18" style="width:48pt"> </colgroup><tbody>
</tbody>