Put this in D1:

=IF(ISNA(MATCH(C1,B:B,0)),"",IF(INDEX(A:A,MATCH(C1 ,B:B,
0))="",LOOKUP("zzz",INDIRECT("A1:A"&MATCH(C1,B:B,
0))),INDEX(A:A,MATCH(C1,B:B,0))))

and copy down as far as you need. It will cope with column C cells
being empty and with cells in C containing fruit or vegetables which
are not in column B (eg Plum) - both return blanks.

Hope this helps.

Pete

On Apr 21, 10:43*pm, Demosthenes
wrote:
Hello,

I have a list of data in C, and would like to create a column in D that
organizes that data into a specific category. For example, given:

Fruit * * *apple * * * * apple
* * * * * *orange * * * orange
* * * * * *banana * * * * * *lettuce
* * * * * *kiwi * * *banana
* * * * * *tomato * * * * * *kiwi
Veg * *lettuce * * * *potato
* * * * * *potato * * * * * * orange
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *banana
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *kiwi
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *tomato
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *apple
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *orange

I want to create a new column in D that returns "fruit" or "veg" -
whichever's appropriate for that row. The problem is that I have a lot of
items and a lot of categories. I can't get an IF or LOOKUP function to work.
I can do VLOOKUP, but would rather not reformat my data.

Any thoughts? Thanks!