This worked, thanks. I added error correction to it:
=IF(ISERROR(INDEX(Technicians!A:A,MATCH(TRIM(LEFT( B36,SEARCH(",",B36)-1)),Technicians!C:C,0))),"",INDEX(Technicians!A:A, MATCH(TRIM(LEFT(B36,SEARCH(",",B36)-1)),Technicians!C:C,0)))


"Max" wrote:

In Sheet2,
Place this in A2:
=INDEX(Sheet1!A:A,MATCH(TRIM(LEFT(B2,SEARCH(",",B2 )-1)),Sheet1!C:C,0))
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Max
Singapore
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"Robert" wrote:
I have:
Sheet1 with empoyee numbers on A:A and last names on C:C
Sheet2 with concantinated names (lastname,firstname) on B:B (always with a
comma between if that helps).

I need some kind of lookup/search formula on sheet2 A:A to extract the last
name from sheet2 B:B, then take this extracted last name and match it up on
sheet1 C:C , then return the emplyee # of sheet1 AA from the same row.