I have a spreedsheet that will change on a day to day basis with peoples
names and a sentence associated with that person, this seems very simple but
I have messed with various functions and something just isnt clicking...

Example:
I want to type in A1, John, and in A2 auto populate what I have already
listed below for John, then the following day type Bill and get his
corresponding result. I will have a total of 8 names with 8 corresponding
sentences.
ie.
E1=John E2=Front Door
F1=Bill F2=Back Door

Make sense?

Thank you in advance!!

You're on the right track. Have you tried VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP?

Lookup functions can help you find and return related records. When
you use a lookup function, you're essentially saying, "Here's a value.
Go to another location, find a match for my value, and then show me
the words or numbers that are in a cell next to that matching value."
If it helps, you can think of that third value as your search result.

In the function names
V stands for vertical - use VLOOKUP when you need to search up and
down through one or more columns.
H stands for horizontal. - use HLOOKUP when you need to search across
through one or more rows of information.

Here's a sample formula
=VLOOKUP(G3,$A$4:$B$41,2,FALSE)

=VLOOKUP means Search through one or more columns of data
G3 means Use the value in G3 as your search term
$A$4:$B$41 means Search through cells A4 to B41 for a match to the
value in cell G3.
2 means and when you find a match, return the value in
column 2
FALSE means but only for an EXACT match.
Note: The $ symbols in $A$4 keep the row and column addresses from
changing when you copy the formula from cell to cell.

Hope this helps,

Patrick

Create a 2 column table with names in the left column and the comment in the
right column.

...........A..........B...................
1......Joe........good with mechanical issues
2......Sue.......excellent number cruncher
3......Biff........deserves a big raise

Then, use a lookup formula:

D1 = Sue

=VLOOKUP(D1,A1:B3,2,0)

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"DLZ217" wrote in message
...
I have a spreedsheet that will change on a day to day basis with peoples
names and a sentence associated with that person, this seems very simple
but
I have messed with various functions and something just isnt clicking...

Example:
I want to type in A1, John, and in A2 auto populate what I have already
listed below for John, then the following day type Bill and get his
corresponding result. I will have a total of 8 names with 8 corresponding
sentences.
ie.
E1=John E2=Front Door
F1=Bill F2=Back Door

Make sense?

Thank you in advance!!

Perfect! Thanks to both of you!

"PatrickA" wrote:

You're on the right track. Have you tried VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP?

Lookup functions can help you find and return related records. When
you use a lookup function, you're essentially saying, "Here's a value.
Go to another location, find a match for my value, and then show me
the words or numbers that are in a cell next to that matching value."
If it helps, you can think of that third value as your search result.

In the function names
V stands for vertical - use VLOOKUP when you need to search up and
down through one or more columns.
H stands for horizontal. - use HLOOKUP when you need to search across
through one or more rows of information.

Here's a sample formula
=VLOOKUP(G3,$A$4:$B$41,2,FALSE)

=VLOOKUP means Search through one or more columns of data
G3 means Use the value in G3 as your search term
$A$4:$B$41 means Search through cells A4 to B41 for a match to the
value in cell G3.
2 means and when you find a match, return the value in
column 2
FALSE means but only for an EXACT match.
Note: The $ symbols in $A$4 keep the row and column addresses from
changing when you copy the formula from cell to cell.

Hope this helps,

Patrick