Excel Questions

[Aaron Boone]

My objective for 2010: get the hang of VLOOKUPS.

[leenie]

nowt got to do with excel.... mircosoft word!

need to finish an essay but whatever i have done, when i go back to correct a word it eats up the other word and i lose it....

please help... going mad 

[leenie]

zigsters a legend..........................

[Mhic Easmuint]

nowt got to do with excel.... mircosoft word!

need to finish an essay but whatever i have done, when i go back to correct a word it eats up the other word and i lose it....

please help... going mad 

I assume it was the insert key on the keyboard?

[leenie]

yes   (duh to me)

i was freaking out....under pressure!

[ziggysego]

zigsters a legend..........................

I don't hear that enough 

[saffron sam2]

This is a great thread.

[Billys Boots]

My objective for 2010: get the hang of VLOOKUPS.

Yes, very handy - just remember to have your lookup lists sorted alphabetically.

[RMDrive]

My objective for 2010: get the hang of VLOOKUPS.

Yes, very handy - just remember to have your lookup lists sorted alphabetically.

Don't see how sorting them is important? Unless you have duplicates in which case it will take the first one.

[Treasurer]

My objective for 2010: get the hang of VLOOKUPS.

Yes, very handy - just remember to have your lookup lists sorted alphabetically.

Don't see how sorting them is important? Unless you have duplicates in which case it will take the first one.

They must be sorted in ascending order or you may not get the correct answer.

[Billys Boots]

My objective for 2010: get the hang of VLOOKUPS.

Yes, very handy - just remember to have your lookup lists sorted alphabetically.

Don't see how sorting them is important? Unless you have duplicates in which case it will take the first one.

They must be sorted in ascending order or you may not get the correct answer.

As usual, beautifully put T!

[RMDrive]

My objective for 2010: get the hang of VLOOKUPS.

Yes, very handy - just remember to have your lookup lists sorted alphabetically.

Don't see how sorting them is important? Unless you have duplicates in which case it will take the first one.

They must be sorted in ascending order or you may not get the correct answer.

What must be sorted in ascending order? I use this a good bit so I want to make sure I'm not doing something wrong.

If I have ...
Donegal - Green
Derry - Red
Antrim - Saffron
Down - Black

... and I vlookup to them, what does it matter how they are sorted?

[Billys Boots]

If you don't have the counties in alphabetical order, you won't get the right colour when you apply the vlookup function.  Or if you do, it's a fluke.  Try it.

[RMDrive]

If you don't have the counties in alphabetical order, you won't get the right colour when you apply the vlookup function.  Or if you do, it's a fluke.  Try it.

Don't need to try it - I know this isn't true (but I tried it anyway just to make sure  ). Excel will search down this list until it finds the text/number you have looked up. Then it will go over the number of columns you specify and give you have the result in that cell. It doesn't care how you sort your data. Duplicates will mean it will take the first one it finds but it doesn't matter how you sort them. Try it.

[Billys Boots]

I tried it - it might be the fact that I'm using Excel-2003, but if i set up a vlookup function to select one of those counties from a dropdown list (as you listed, not alphabetically), and I select each one of the counties manually, the function only supplies the right answer twice.  Maybe we're using it in different ways.