[excel] Find something in column A then show the value of B for that row in Excel 2010

Basically my problem is that I have a string in one cell in excel, I then need to see if that string exists in another row (not one cell but the whole row) and if so then print the contents of another cell in the same row but in another column.

I will give a basic example:

Title      Answer
Police       15
Ambulance    20
Fire         89

Now I need to scan the title column for, say, "Police" and then populate the cell with the value under Answer (in this case 15).

I cant just say IF(A2="Police";B2;"" as I need the scan the whole of the Title column.

I have tried using IF(COUNTIF(A$2:A$100;"Police"); which scans the contents of A2 to A100 for the string Police, and know how to make it print a constant (just put something after the ;) but cant work out how to make that "constant" a variable that changes depending on the found row. So if the COUNTIF found Police in cell A44 then the answer to my formula would be B44, the same as if it found Police in A62 then my formula should show B62

I hope this makes sense and that someone can help me :)

Note that I am using excel 2010 and need a normal formula as I can not use scripting for this document.

EDIT:

Here is what I have so far, note that the spreadsheet I am using is far more complex than the "simple" example I have in the question...

=IF(ISNUMBER(FIND("RuhrP";F9));LOOKUP(A9;Ruhrpumpen!A$5:A$100;Ruhrpumpen!I$5:I$100);"")

This is showing "RuhrP" in every answer where "RuhrP" is found in F9 and not the answer I want which should be that found in RuhrPumpen!I$5:I$100 where the cell index is the same as that for the A coloum where A9 was found. Again, sorry for the complexity I cant think of any better way to word it.

This question is related to excel excel-2010

The answer is


I note you suggested this formula

=IF(ISNUMBER(FIND("RuhrP";F9));LOOKUP(A9;Ruhrpumpen!A$5:A$100;Ruhrpumpen!I$5:I$100);"")

.....but LOOKUP isn't appropriate here because I assume you want an exact match (LOOKUP won't guarantee that and also data in lookup range has to be sorted), so VLOOKUP or INDEX/MATCH would be better....and you can also use IFERROR to avoid the IF function, i.e

=IFERROR(VLOOKUP(A9;Ruhrpumpen!A$5:Z$100;9;0);"")

Note: VLOOKUP always looks up the lookup value (A9) in the first column of the "table array" and returns a value from the nth column of the "table array" where n is defined by col_index_num, in this case 9

INDEX/MATCH is sometimes more flexible because you can explicitly define the lookup column and the return column (and return column can be to the left of the lookup column which can't be the case in VLOOKUP), so that would look like this:

=IFERROR(INDEX(Ruhrpumpen!I$5:I$100;MATCH(A9;Ruhrpumpen!A$5:A$100;0));"")

INDEX/MATCH also allows you to more easily return multiple values from different columns, e.g. by using $ signs in front of A9 and the lookup range Ruhrpumpen!A$5:A$100, i.e.

=IFERROR(INDEX(Ruhrpumpen!I$5:I$100;MATCH($A9;Ruhrpumpen!$A$5:$A$100;0));"")

this version can be dragged across to get successive values from column I, column J, column K etc.....


Guys Its very interesting to know that many of us face the problem of replication of lookup value while using the Vlookup/Index with Match or Hlookup.... If we have duplicate value in a cell we all know, Vlookup will pick up against the first item would be matching in loopkup array....So here is solution for you all...

e.g.

in Column A we have field called company....

Column A                             Column B            Column C

Company_Name                         Value        
Monster                              25000                              
Naukri                               30000  
WNS                                  80000  
American Express                     40000  
Bank of America                      50000  
Alcatel Lucent                       35000  
Google                               75000  
Microsoft                            60000  
Monster                              35000  
Bank of America                      15000 

Now if you lookup the above dataset, you would see the duplicity is in Company Name at Row No# 10 & 11. So if you put the vlookup, the data will be picking up which comes first..But if you use the below formula, you can make your lookup value Unique and can pick any data easily without having any dispute or facing any problem

Put the formula in C2.........A2&"_"&COUNTIF(A2:$A$2,A2)..........Result will be Monster_1 for first line item and for row no 10 & 11.....Monster_2, Bank of America_2 respectively....Here you go now you have the unique value so now you can pick any data easily now..

Cheers!!! Anil Dhawan


I figured out such data design:

Main sheet: Column A: Pump codes (numbers)

Column B: formula showing a corresponding row in sheet 'Ruhrpumpen'

=ROW(Pump_codes)+MATCH(A2;Ruhrpumpen!$I$5:$I$100;0)

Formulae have ";" instead of ",", it should be also German notation. If not, pleace replace.

Column C: formula showing data in 'Ruhrpumpen' column A from a row found by formula in col B

=INDIRECT("Ruhrpumpen!A"&$B2)

Column D: formula showing data in 'Ruhrpumpen' column B from a row found by formula in col B:

=INDIRECT("Ruhrpumpen!B"&$B2)

Sheet 'Ruhrpumpen':

Column A: some data about a certain pump

Column B: some more data

Column I: pump codes. Beginning of the list includes defined name 'Pump_codes' used by the formula in column B of the main sheet.

Spreadsheet example: http://www.bumpclub.ee/~jyri_r/Excel/Data_from_other_sheet_by_code_row.xls


Assuming

source data range is A1:B100.
query cell is D1 (here you will input Police or Fire).
result cell is E1

Formula in E1 = VLOOKUP(D1, A1:B100, 2, FALSE)