I have pondered this for a while now. I cannot think of a proper
formula to do the job.

Simply put - I have about 20,000 rows with 2 columns per set. I want
to somehow identify when a number greater than zero first appears - at
which point, I would like to denote it with an X in column A.. There
would be a maximum of 30 columns in each set. The way it would search
for the number per set, is to start in cell B1. If B1 is greater than
zero, then X is to be place in. If not, it would go down to B2. If not
again, then back up to C1.... then C2 right to a maximum of cell AE2.
it will eventually encounter a number greater than zero. After it
encounters is it would then go to the next set directly below which
would be B3 and B4 etc....

Here are a few examples (I have shortened the columns to 7 for
illustaration purposes only):


A B C D E
F G H
X 0 0 0 0 2 3 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 1

0 0 0 0 0 0 0
X 0 0 1 0 0 1 0

X 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0

X 0 3 0 3 1 0 0
0 2 0 1 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0
X 1 0 0 3 3 0 0

X 0 0 1 1 1 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Thanks in advance !