Thanks for getting back to me. I can't really tell what it is doing now. In
some cases it seems to count the number of items that match my criteria, and
in other cases I can't tell how the final result is derived...even with the
formula audit tool... It may be a circular reference. This is fuzzy logic;
not sure what do do now. Are there are any other ideas out there?

Maybe:
=VLOOKUP(F5,LEFT(A5:C29,4),1)

Or something like:
=VLOOKUP("*"&F5,$A$5:$C$23,1)

....but that's incorrect too...




--
RyGuy


"Peo Sjoblom" wrote:

How does C5 and A5 if this is TRUE?

C5=LEFT(A5,4)

so C is only 4 characters?

If so

=IF(C5=LEFT(A5,4),COUNTIF(C$5:C$2004,"="&LEFT(A5,4 )),"")



--


Regards,


Peo Sjoblom

"ryguy7272" wrote in message
...
Thanks Peo, but it didn't work. When I use your function, I get a whole
bunch of #N/As when the client's name is longer than four letters and I
get a
'1' when the client's name is four letters or less, like 3M. I am
thinking
that I may need to use some version of this:
=IF(C5=LEFT(A5,4),COUNTIF(C$5:C$2004,A5),"")

Any suggestions as to how to modify this type of function?


Thanks,
Ryan---

--
RyGuy


"Peo Sjoblom" wrote:

You would need to put the LEFT function on the range where the
lookup/match
is made

=MATCH(A3,LEFT(D3:D6,4),0)

as an example

needs to be array entered

--


Regards,


Peo Sjoblom

"ryguy7272" wrote in message
...
I am working with a list of names, which includes clients and
subsidiaries
of
those clients, and the subsidiaries names are always slightly
different,
but
the first four letters of each name are the same for all of these
groups.
So
now I have the first four letters of each name, all dollars that each
client
has spent, in a pivot table, and now that the names are summed in the
pivot
table, I want to extract the full client's name so I can match it with
the
total amount spent. I am thinking the function will be something like
this:
=IF(NOT(ISERROR(LEFT(MATCH(A5:A250,C5:C250,0),4))) ,C5:C250,"")

...but this doesn't work. I'd appreciate it if someone could offer
some
assistance. If I derive the answer before anyone else I'll post back.


Regards,
Ryan---


--
RyGuy