=VLOOKUP(E1,{"E",4;"F",3;"LG",5;"LS",5.5;"MA",4},2 ,FALSE)

adjust the values to suit

You can put the values in a table and refer to that

=VLOOKUP(E1,Sheet2!A1:B52,FALSE)

--
---
HTH

Bob


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



"Marion Black" <Marion wrote in message
...
Hi,
Any help would be very greatfully received!
I am trying to work on a spreadsheet for a staffing rota. Each shift type
has a letter (i.e. E or LS). I need to assign a numeric value to each
letter
that represents the number of hours of that shift (i.e. E= 5.5), so that
totals can be calculated more easily...
But I'm stumped! :s