I need to return one of three answers in a cell

K

Kath

I need to have one of three results show up in the cell.

I am using VLOOKUP to get my data result, but I need the cell to display
"unknown" if the requested data is not valid. However to add to that, I need
the cell to display nothing at all if there is no data being requested.

Does anyone have any suggestions please?
 
A

Ardus Petus

Say your lookup table is in D1:E10

=IF(A1="","",IF(ISNA(MATCH(A1,D1:D10)),"unknown",VLOOKUP(A1:D1:E10,2,0)))

HTH
 
D

Dav

Can you give us a little more information. Unknown can be added to a
lookup as the valure to return at he top or bottom of the range

of

if(isblank(a1)," ",if(vlookup you have used=#n/a,"Unknown",vlookup you
have used))

Regards

Dav
 
K

Kath

Thanks. I have used the formula now of

=IF(ISBLANK(D19),"",IF(ISERROR(VLOOKUP(D19,Catalogue!$A$4:$C$42,2,FALSE)),"unknown",VLOOKUP(D19,Catalogue!$A$4:$C$42,2,FALSE)))

and it returns the correct results, but it is saying it is an inconsistant
formula.

Any ideas on that?

Thanks again
Kath
 
K

Kath

My mistake - not an inconsistant formula - just an error of refering to empty
cells - easily fixed by turning that error checker off.

thanks very much Dav and Ardus Petus. Greatly appreciated.

Kath
 
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