My problem is lets say I know I want to buy a total of A apples in
equal bunches until I have reached A. However these purchases will be
spread over time. Lets say I have months numbered from 1 to 100 in a
vertical column. I want to first be able to tell the function that I
want to purchase the apples in a certain number of bunches say X.
Then I want to say that my first purchase of apples will be made on
month Y with subsequent purchases made each Z months until I have
purchased a total of A apples. so I would like an output where in
column A I have months listed from 1 to 100 and in column B the number
of apples purchased in that month will be displayed. I anticipate most
months having an output of 0. Any ideas on how to tackle this one?

Hi,

Assume that in A2:A102, you have the month numbers. In I2:I5, you have
bunches, total apples to be purchased, first month of purchase and month
increments.

In cell B2, you may use the following formula and then copy down till B102

=IF(AND(OR(A2=$I$4,MOD(A2,$I$5)=4),SUM(B$1:B1)<$I$ 3),MIN($I$3-SUM(B$1:B1),$I$2),"")

Hope this helps.

--
Regards,

Ashish Mathur
Microsoft Excel MVP
www.ashishmathur.com

"hejnoid" wrote in message
...
My problem is lets say I know I want to buy a total of A apples in
equal bunches until I have reached A. However these purchases will be
spread over time. Lets say I have months numbered from 1 to 100 in a
vertical column. I want to first be able to tell the function that I
want to purchase the apples in a certain number of bunches say X.
Then I want to say that my first purchase of apples will be made on
month Y with subsequent purchases made each Z months until I have
purchased a total of A apples. so I would like an output where in
column A I have months listed from 1 to 100 and in column B the number
of apples purchased in that month will be displayed. I anticipate most
months having an output of 0. Any ideas on how to tackle this one?

Thanks for the help. You got me headed in the right direction. For
what it's worth I had to change the equation to:

=IF(AND(OR(A2=$I$3, AND(MOD(A2-$I$3,$I$2)=0, A2$I$3-1)), SUM($B$1:B1)<
$I$4), $I$4/$I$5,0)