The feature you want is called the VLOOKUP formula..........it's uses like
this.
First, you create a table somewhere out of the way.....the table being your
list of numbers down one column and your list of descriptions in the column
immediately to the right....say you used columns Y and Z.....then place this
formula in A2

=VLOOKUP(A1,Y:Z,2,FALSE)

Now, one thing you have to look out for, is that both the A1 value, and all
the values in column Y have to both be either TEXT, or NUMBERS, and not just
"look" like numbers, but actually have to be formatted as numbers. This
difference often causes folks trouble with the VLOOKUP formula........try
this, and post back if you have problems........

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3


"clubman" wrote in message
...
I have a scanner that i can ues in excel. it will place a number into cell
A1. What i need it to do is lookup that number and place the description
into cell A2. and then add that quanity of the items that match that
description into one cell for that item, like an inventory program would
do.
i believe there is a formula for this and i've tried but get errors in the
formula all the time. just learning some of the commands but need alittle
help. former lotus user. thanks