Assume name and sales (numbers) are
in Sheet1, cols A and B, from row1 down

In Sheet2,

Put in A1:
=IF(Sheet1!B1="","",IF(ISNUMBER(Sheet1!B1),Sheet1! B1-ROW()/10^10,""))
Copy down to cover the max expected extent of data in Sheet1's col B

Put in B1:
=IF(ROW(A1)COUNT($A:$A),"",INDEX(Sheet1!A:A,MATCH (LARGE($A:$A,ROW(A1)),$A:$A,0)))
Copy B1 to C1, then fill down by say, 10 rows? to C10, to cover the
possibility of ties/multiple ties within the top 5. Hide away col A. Cols B
and C will return the required descending sort of names and sales by sales.
Read off the top 5 names & sales as desired.
--
Max
Singapore
http://savefile.com/projects/236895
xdemechanik
---
"Emma Hope" wrote:
Please note that i can't change the original sheets, i don't want toc opy the
whole thing again, so filters etc won't work, i need a formulae. Thanks

Hi all,

I have Sheet1 which contains large amounts of data such as
A B
Fred £10
Joe £10
Tom £20
Sarah £30 etc
Total £XYZ

on sheet2 i would like to list the top 5 people (colA) based on their
performance in (colB).

I cannot change sheet1 in anyway, the only way i can find to do it, is to
copy the entire thing to sheet to, do a rank() formula and then vlookup
positions 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (i don't use 1 as there is a total at the bottom).
This gets a bit upset when there are blanks and when two or more people have
the same value

There must be a better way of doing this, so it can take into account when
people have the same figure, ignoring the total at the bottom and without
copying the entire thing! The number of rows of data is changeable and so i
can't use i.e. A1:B50 when the totals are in B51, i need it either ignore the
highest value or look at positions 2 to 6 whichever is easier for the formula

Any help would be gratefully received