Included in XL's reference operators, there is the "intersection operator",
which is quite simply, a *space*.

If you had this simple datalist:

A B C D
1] XXX Mary Beth Ann
2] Tom 1 2 3
3] Dick 4 5 6
4] Harry 7 8 9

To return 5, use
=C1:C4 A3:D3
Which is the intersection of the 2 ranges.
Note the space between the ranges.

You could however, also use the names instead.
<Tools <Options <Calculation tab,
And make sure that "Accept Labels in Formulas"
*IS* checked.

Then use this to return 5:

=Beth Dick
OR
=Dick Beth

You can also use the names in actual calculations:
=beth dick*mary harry
to return 35
--
HTH,

RD

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"Pittsburgh Jack" <Pittsburgh wrote in
message ...
I have set up a simple information table on an Excel spreadsheet. There
are
a series of categories in the left column (for the rows) and a series of
categories along the top of the table (for the colums). How do I get
Excel
to return a value from a junction of the X-Y axis by imputing one of the
categories on the left and one of the categories on the top of this simple
table?