Hi!

It sounds like you want some type of lookup formula. See if this helps:

http://contextures.com/xlFunctions02.html

Biff

"Jackie" wrote in message
...
Thanks - I'll try this, but while I am on the subject of spreadsheets and
formulas - can you show me the the idiots way of creating an auto
complete.
A lot of my records have a unique reference number, but may contain the
same
sort of information similar to another record
ie name (unique), house number (seperate cell)
Street - its here where I could do with the town, county, region auto
filling in

Many thanks
Jackie

"Biff" wrote:

Hi!

You can use Data Validation for this.

Assume the range in question is A1:A5.

Select that range, A1:A5.
Goto DataValidation
Allow: Custom
Formula: =COUNTIF(A$1:A$5,A1)<2

You can create your own custom error message if you want by clicking on
the
Error Alert tab.

Biff

"Jackie" wrote in message
...
I am creating lists in Excel and I don't want information to be
duplicated,
can I use a forlmula to prevent this?
A bit like a primary key in databases