Hi!

Dataset in the range A1:A4

Lookup table in the range F1:G4

Formula in B1 entered as an array using the key combo of CTRL,SHIFT,ENTER:

=INDEX(G$1:G$4,MATCH(TRUE,ISNUMBER(SEARCH(F$1:F$4, A1)),0))

Copy down as needed.

Biff

"cdhmotes" wrote in
message ...

I have a large dataset in which I need to find a list of partial string
matches, and then return a value associated with each unique partial
string match.

Example
======

The dataset:

indallastexas
musicfan
bluechair
twentyminutesago

The lookup table:
LookupValue MasterValue
------------ ------------
dallas city
music noun
blue color
minutes time

Desired result:
indallastexas city
musicfan noun
bluechair color
twentyminutesago time

So for all occurences of the word "dallas", I need to return the value
"city" in that row. My dataset is quite large, and I need to repeat
this periodically so simply finding/replacing is not an option. I also
cannot parse the dataset in a way that will put all of my exact lookup
values into a column. There are no character patterns in the data that
vlookup can use, in other words everything is a string and the lookup
values in the strings do not have consistent placement patterns in the
cells.

This seems like a vlookup with a partial match vs. exact match. Any
ideas?


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