The concatination of two cells to make a unique key is generally ok if and
only if the first column contains fixed width values.

If they don't then there could be a concern with duplicate keys, take for
example

a1="A11" b1="1" a1&b1="A111"
a2="A1 b2="11" a2&b2="A111"

it is better to put a seperator (that does not occur in the two cells)
between the cells as in

a1="A11" b1="1" a1&":"&b1="A11:1"
a2="A1 b2="11" a2&":"&b2="A1:11"

Good examples of seperators are ":", "|", "(@)".

--
Hope this helps
Martin Fishlock, Bangkok, Thailand
Please do not forget to rate this reply.


"o1darcie1o" wrote:

Thanks guys - that's what I came up with, too, but not until after I posted.
Thank you both!!!

"Scott" wrote:

When I don't care too much, I usually just cheat and have an extra
column with an index value. ie. I'll insert a column in front of the
values, and put the formula =B2&C2 (assuming the account and service
are in those two columns).

Then I'll run the VLOOKUP based on that column, ie.

=VLOOKUP(A1&B1,'Sheet1!$A$2:$D$1000,3,FALSE)

Scott

o1darcie1o wrote:
I hope I can explain this ok:
My vendor reports an Account ID listed multiple times, once for each service
subscribed to. My billing is based on the two items: some services are
billed under one sales account, some on another.
I currently have my sheet set up where it is sorted by service and I vlookup
the account ID for each service seperately (using exact cell locations
instead of columns).
Is there a formula so that it looks at the account id, then the service, and
returns the sales account?
I hope that was clear - thanks in advance for your help!