I'll try to explain further the small changes I did w/Bob's formula (but
check my comments at the end - I would probably move the YTD formulas and
stick w/Bob's original formula).

=INDEX(B:B,LOOKUP(2,1/(B1:B8<""),ROW(B1:B8))-1)

Assume you have the following data in column B:

B
1 X
2 58
3 4
4 <empty
5 Joe
6 765
7 <empty
8 <empty

Starting in the middle of the formula, (B1:B8<"") will return TRUE/FALSE
depending on whether or not the cell is empty. Excel actually stores TRUE as
1 and FALSE as 0, so 1/(B1:B8<"") will yield

1
1
1
#DIV/0
1
1
#DIV/0
#DIV/0

LOOKUP(2,1/(B1:B8<""),ROW(B1:B8), will try to match 2 to the above values
(but if it does not find it, it will return the largest value that is smaller
than what you are trying to look up -according to Excel help) and will return
the corresponding value from the array created by ROW(B1:B8).

In actual practice, as long as the value you are trying to look up is
greater than all of the values in your lookup vector - it appears Lookup will
return the last value (based on what I've seen).

So, imagine a table that looks like:

1 1
1 2
1 3
#DIV/0 4
1 5
1 6
#DIV/0 7
#DIV/0 8

So Lookup returns 6 and if we substitute that into the original formula you
have
=INDEX(B:B,6-1)
which will return the value in the 5th row in column B - which hopefully is
not blank or empty. So if you have blank/empty cells in between your data
there could be problems (which I did not think of until now).

Your best bet is probably to move the YTD formulas to the top of column B
(or to another column, which I think you said you've already done) and use
Bob's original formula to get the last value in column B.


"Jim" wrote:

Thanks, I've got everything working now, just dont know why.
I ve been given the following but not sure what the (2,1 does in #1 & #4,
nor the ROW -1 does.
More reading & playing to do

=LOOKUP(2,1/(B1:B100<""),B1:B100)
=INDIRECT("B"&SUMPRODUCT(MAX((ROW(B1:B1000))*(B1:B 1000<""))))
=INDEX(B:B,MATCH(MAX(A:A),A:A,0))
=INDEX(B:B,LOOKUP(2,1/(B1:B100<""),ROW(B1:B100))-1)



"JMB" wrote in message
...
Maybe you could modifiy Bob's formula to do that. This appears to work
okay:

=INDEX(B:B,LOOKUP(2,1/(B1:B100<""),ROW(B1:B100))-1)

"Jim" wrote:

This function will give me the value in the last cell, which is 3.20%.
I'm
trying to get the value in the last row before the last row.
(sounds kind of dumb) 86,963.25
Thanks Jim

"Bob Phillips" wrote in message
...
You don't need a macro

=LOOKUP(2,1/(B1:B100<""),B1:B100)

--
---
HTH

Bob

(there's no email, no snail mail, but somewhere should be gmail in my
addy)



"Jim" wrote in message
...
How would I reflect, in say in sheet2, the last amount in col B,
before
the % shown
in in col B, which will change as i add new dates?
In my old 123 days to find this cell i would record a macro like goto
col
B, end down,
down,end up. Not sure how to accomplise this in Excel 2003.

Thanks,
Jim


A B C D
1 2/7/07 86,051.28 1,784.53 2.12%
2 2/9/07 85,504.54 1,237.79 1.47%
3 2/13/07 85,910.57 1,643.82 1.95%
4 2/14/07 86,963.25 2,696.50 3.20%



YTD 3.20%