Thanks for the link and the answer Dave.

The original worksheet is hard to describe and too big to show here... It
seems as though I'm going to have to rearrange the data there to get the
reports and forms to work the way the powers that be want them to. I was
hoping to avoid that.

As for Access - it's not on the computers, and those above don't want to
"bother" with it. My job is to make this <unprintable workbook function so
anyone without extensive computer experience can use it and not break it.
hahaha. I agree with you about using Excel as a database, and it's very
frustrating to me every time I run across it (I'm a career temp office
worker).

Thanks again. I'll check out the link.

--
I doubt, therefore I might be.

"Dave F" wrote:

Here's info on how to use the LOOKUP function:
http://www.techonthenet.com/excel/formulas/lookup.php

Without knowing what your spreadsheet looks like it would be impossible to
tell if you could use it.

As for Access--if the powers that be care only about the end result, why do
they care how you get to it? You're right that Access sounds perfect for
what you're looking to do. Excel isn't a database program and shouldn't be
used as such, even if it does have db capabilities like LOOKUP, VLOOKUP, etc.
It has very limited ways of forcing data integrity. But I'm sure you know
all this.

Dave
--
Brevity is the soul of wit.