In B1 use this formula:
=VLOOKUP(A1,$H$1:$J$14,3,FALSE)
That's based on the information you gave, but I think you may have made a
mistake and that your table is in H and I not, H, I and J. If it is in H and
I, then the formula would be
=VLOOKUP(A1,$H$1:$I$14,2,FALSE)
You can then fill that formula down your sheet and the A1 will change to A2,
A3, A4, etc. while the rest of it will remain as it is now and keep working
in each cell.

Hope this helps some.

"Karoline" wrote:

I am a dummy in Excel and would appreciate someone's help on this:

I made in a corner of my Worksheet an explanatory table with 2 rows
indicating categories and abbreviations as follows:

H1 J1
1 i
2 rtvs
3 cpl
4 sgl
H5 J5
and so on. They are 14 categories each one with its respective abbreviations

What I need is to introduce a formula in such a way that in the space for
the answers of a questionary in a lower part of the Worksheet, every time I
enter in the empty cell the assigned category, the abbreviation could appear
in the next empty cell automatically.

example:
A1 Category Number B1 abreviation
4 then here it comes automatic the proper
abreviation

While reading I found that maybe I should use Vlook up, or IF but I have
more than 7 categories and I couldn't figure out a proper formula... Some one
patient enough around to give me a hint?????

--
KBZ