wow... thanks!! I was thinking this might be the route to go... but i didn't
think of locking the range (the "A$2" part - that keeps it from counting the
entire list) Nice! Very elegant.

thanks again!
-meat

"Bernie Deitrick" wrote:

meat,

In C2, use the formula

=IF(COUNTIF($A$2:A2,A2)=1,B2,"")

and copy down to match your list.

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP



"MeatLightning" wrote in message
...
Hey all -
Got a head-scratcher here. Hoping someone can help. Here's the scoop

I have a pile of data (6k+ rows). Amongst this data, there are two columns
I
am working with:

COL A COL B
1234 1/1/2002
1234 1/1/2002
1234 1/1/2002
1345 1/22/2004
1345 1/22/2004
1344 2/14/2005

In a new COL C, I want to show the date from COL B that corresponds to the
first instance of each number string in COL A. For subsequent matches, I
want to show nothing (blank) or "N/A."

So using my example above, my completed sheet would look like this:

COL A COL B COL C
1234 1/1/2002 1/1/2002
1234 1/1/2002
1234 1/1/2002
1345 1/22/2004 1/22/2004
1345 1/22/2004
1344 2/14/2005 2/14/2005

Ideally this is all accomplished via function / formula in COL C (not
macro
or UDF - though those are welcome as well). Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!
-meat