I have done something similar by using Vlookup() , you could have
table with the short codes and their descriptions. Then insert
column in your data with a Vlookup formula that looks up the short cod
in your table, Make sure that you enter the last Parameter of th
Vlookup as 'FALSE' this will then lookup the long description for you
codes but will produce '#NA' for codes that do not appear in you
lookup table.

If You need to replace the '#NA' with your error message, an IF formul
could be used, something along the lines of =IF(ISNA(D5),"Not A Vali
Code!",D5)

Someone may well be along soon with a more elegant solution :

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