It sounds like you want a "lookup" formula rather than a "counting" formula.

See if this does what you want:

=INDEX('[Reporting 10-01-04.xls]Sheet2'!$I$2:$I$1000,MATCH(B1,'[Reporting
10-01-04.xls]Sheet2'!$B$2:$B$1000,0))

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"Steve" wrote in message
...
hi,

i have this formula that i have set up but i dont know if i am going down
the wrong route or its just the final bit i cannot work out....
i am trying to view the value in coloum 'I' when the first value in coloum
'B' is found....
there will (or should) only be one value of coloum 'B' as this is a list
of
names which gets generated each day. how to i view the value it brings up
in
coloum 'I'?

=SUMPRODUCT(--('[Reporting
10-01-04.xls]Sheet2'!B$2:$B1000=B1),--('[Reporting
10-01-04.xls]Sheet2'!$I$2:$I1000=" "))

thank you in advance!