Thanks John,

I tried a =IF(ISERROR(MATCH(A4,$C$1:$C$190,0)),"",B4) type
formula but it only worked on some cells!! where it
compared 2 rows of payroll numbers (A & C) and inserted
wages or salary from B but....it doesn't really work

I'll give it a go, thanks again for your help

-----Original Message-----
if you have the name in cell B4 of sheet 1, and the hours
worked in cell C4, put this in cell D4

=MATCH(B4,Sheet2!$B$4:$B$10,0)

where the sheet 2 reference column B is the column where
you have the names (starting in row 4) and presumably
have
the salary vs wages in column C.

The match function finds the position in a data set of
what you are looking for, in this case the name.

then put this in cell E4 of sheet 1, assuming the data in
sheet 2 also starts in row 4

=OFFSET(Sheet2!$B$3,D4,1,1,1)

The offset function returns the value from a cell a
specificed rows and columns form you reference. the
above
match figures out the correct row, and the first "1" says
look one column to the right.

This is a simple way to do it within the spreadsheet, but
someone better at VBA than I could probably write a slick
routine stepping down thru your list of names, but that
might be overkill.

better?

John

-----Original Message-----
Thanks John, but honestly, that was as clear as mud...
I'm
not very good at these formulas!

Let me explain a little better

Workbook 1
sheet 1
A B
1 Employee number Total Hours
C will be where the type of pay is inserted from
workbook
2.


Workbook 2
sheet 2
A B
1 Employee number type of pay

Thanks
Lea
-----Original Message-----


Hi - you can use match function to find row of each
name
in the worksheet with the salary vs wages data. Then
you
can use offset function with this result to
find "salary"
or "wages". hope that helps.

John
-----Original Message-----
Hi,

I'm trying to compare data from two very large
spreadsheets.
Both contain payroll data, one with hours worked per
employee, the other showing employees as wages or
salary
staff. I need to pinpoint which employees in the
hours
worked spreadsheet are wages staff, and which are
salaried
as quickly and easily as possible.

Please help
.

.

.

.