formula

M

mdelecce

I'm making a spreadsheet for all of our customers (thousands), and I want to create a formula for a column so that every time the same email is typed into a cell, it flags it as a double. Can someone help me please?
 
J

John McGhie

You have not told us which version of Mac or Excel you're using, so no, we
can't answer.


I'm making a spreadsheet for all of our customers (thousands), and I want to
create a formula for a column so that every time the same email is typed into
a cell, it flags it as a double. Can someone help me please?

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410 | mailto:[email protected]
 
M

mdelecce

Sorry,

I have Microsoft Excel 08 for mac: Version 12.1.0 (080409)
Operating system: Snow Leopard mac 08X version 10.6.9

Thank you kindly!
 
J

John McGhie

Damn! That's what I thought you were going to say :)

OK, the official answer is "It can't be done", because doing it requires
VBA, which won't return until Office 2011.

Have a look at the Excel Help topic "Add, delete, or find data in a list".
That may come close enough for your purposes.

Or, you can fudge it using VLOOKUP. However: it won't do exactly what you
want.

If you construct a sheet in which you assign an "input area", you can then
type the email address into that.

You need three columns: The Input area (in a single cell), the "Flag" cell
(perhaps the cell to the right of it) and the "Addresses" column (which must
be to the right of that.

Study the help and examples for VLOOKUP in the Excel Help, it's quite
complex.

You then use the entry in the input cell in a VLOOKUP that scans the column
containing the existing addresses. If it finds a match, it colours the Flag
cell red, which will alert you to the fact that you already have the address
you are about to enter.

You could also use a simple Conditional Format in each cell of the Existing
Addresses column to turn the cell green if that entry matches the entry in
the input cell.

So if you enter an existing email address, you get a red flag cell to say
"already got it" and if you scroll the list, the matching address will have
gone green.

Without active code, that's about as close as you can come.

Let me know if you need more help.

Sorry,

I have Microsoft Excel 08 for mac: Version 12.1.0 (080409)
Operating system: Snow Leopard mac 08X version 10.6.9

Thank you kindly!

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410 | mailto:[email protected]
 
M

mdelecce

I'm not that excel savy; I can't seem to work out the formula. What do you mean "input area"? Can you provide a detailed example please?

Say we have

1) (e-mail address removed)
2) (e-mail address removed)
3) (e-mail address removed)
4) (e-mail address removed)

What exactly would I need to do to highlight/flag (anything like this) a cell or area to let me know that is 4 is a repeat of 1?

Thank you so much!
 
B

Bob Greenblatt

I'm not that excel savy; I can't seem to work out the formula. What do
you mean "input area"? Can you provide a detailed example please?

Say we have

1) (e-mail address removed)
2) (e-mail address removed)
3) (e-mail address removed)
4) (e-mail address removed)

What exactly would I need to do to highlight/flag (anything like this) a
cell or area to let me know that is 4 is a repeat of 1?

Thank you so much!
PMFJI, but you do not need VBA to do this. You could use data
validation, or conditional formatting. Suppose your email addresses are
in column A, and you want an error if you enter a duplicate. Highlight
all of column A, or only the range needed. Then, with the first email
cell (assuming A1)selected, go to Data-Validation, and kin Allow, select
Custom, and enter the following formula: =countif(A:A,A1)=1 then set
your error alert message.
 
J

John McGhie

Hi Bob:

Oh! I had a brain-fade :) I hadn't thought of Data Validation.

Yeah, that's a great idea :)

Cheers

PMFJI, but you do not need VBA to do this. You could use data
validation, or conditional formatting. Suppose your email addresses are
in column A, and you want an error if you enter a duplicate. Highlight
all of column A, or only the range needed. Then, with the first email
cell (assuming A1)selected, go to Data-Validation, and kin Allow, select
Custom, and enter the following formula: =countif(A:A,A1)=1 then set
your error alert message.

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410 | mailto:[email protected]
 

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