lookup problems

[O'C]

I'm trying to create a calendar speadsheet from a list of information. Let's
say my data is in the form of three COL. The first is a vehicle ID, second
is a due date, and lastly number three is what work is due for that vehicle
on that date. I'm trying to bring it over into a spreedsheet with the
vehicles listed in down in col 1 then the months spread accorross the top
from Jan in col 2 through Dec in col 13. Any help you can give me is greatly
appreciated.

 

[Biff]

Hi!

This can be done if you set it up properly. It would also
require a lot of formulas (depending on how many vehicles
you have)- 12 * number of vehicles.

To make things as easy as possible the dates in your
columnar data and the 12 months in the calander must be
true Excel dates.

For the 12 calander months you can enter any date of a
particular month and just format the cells as MMM. For
example, you can enter 1/1 for January and then format as
MMM to give you the displayed value of Jan.

For the purposes of this example I will use this sample
data as your list and it's located in the range O1:Q10

1 1-Jan brake
2 5-Nov tune
3 6-Oct insp
4 1-Feb insp
5 1-Mar tune
6 1-Apr brake
7 1-May align
8 1-Aug muff
9 1-Sep tires
10 1-Jun oil

Now, assume that in your "calander" the vehicle ID's start
in A2. The months are listed in B1:M1.

In B2 enter this array formula using the key combo of
CTRL,SHIFT,ENTER:

=INDEX($Q$1:$Q$10,MATCH(1,($O$1:$O$10=$A2)*(MONTH
($P$1:$P$10)=MONTH(B$1)),0))

Copy across then down to fill the calander. You will get a
lot of #N/A errors where there is no matching data. You
can either suppress the #N/A's from being displayed by use
of the formula or you can hide the #N/A's using
conditional formatting. Personally, I would use cf.

Biff

 

[O'C]

I tried it and it works very much like the several VLOOKUPs i've done. The
real problem i have is that at times there are several items due each month
and this only brings up the first item due. I'm dealing with with 14
vehicles each with 150-160 inspections due at various times. I have a data
miner that strips a txt file and imports a 2200 row by 41 col data set. I'm
currently using 6 rows per vehicle per month and manually typing the data.
What i need is excel to save me some time and do it for me. I've always had
the problem of finding the next item due in a list of items due on thew same
vehicle in the same month. Another thing is that i have to use a revolving
calendar starting at the current month and going out for the year.

HELP,
O'C

 

[Biff]

Hi!

Ok, so you allot 6 rows for 6 possible items per vehicle
per month, no problem.

array entered:

=INDEX($Q$1:$Q$10,SMALL(IF(($O$1:$O$10=$A$2)*(MONTH
($P$1:$P$10)=MONTH(B$1))=1,ROW($A$1:$A$10)),ROW(1:1)))

Now, this will take some tweaking because you'll have to
manually change the reference cell to each vehicle instead
of just being able to create one formula and drag copying
it. You can copy this formula across then down for the
first vehicle only. Then you would need to change the
reference cell to vehicle 2.

ROW($A$1:$A$10) refers to the length of your raw data
list. If your actual list is 2200 rows long just change
the range reference to A1:A2200. If you don't know the
exact length and don't feel like counting it you can use
something like this:

ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&COUNTA(Q:Q)))

As for the revolving calender thing, ???????

You may be better off getting some preventative
maintenance scheduling software.

Biff

 

[O'C]

I came up with this one today and it works like a champ. Now the only
problem i have is with the #num! error showing up. I think I'm against the
wall in the nested functions area because i keep getting an error in my
formula when i try inserting the old IF(ISERROR(INDEX(...),"",INDEX(...). I
can't figure out how to hide with the CONDIT Formatting. Got any ideas???

=INDEX(TRUCKS!$C$1:$C$21,SMALL(IF(TRUCKS!$A1:$A22=SHEET!$A$12,IF(TRUCKS!$B$1:$B$22<=DATE(2005,MONTH(F1),31),IF(TRUCKS!$B$1:$B22>=DATE(2005,MONTH(F1),1),ROW($A$1:$A$21),""),""),""),ROW($A$1:$A$21)))

Thanks,
O'C

 

[O'C]

Ok I figured it out:

=IF(ISERROR(F2),TRUE,FALSE)

I'm just a little slow, i'll get it eventually. Thanks for all your help.
This was the first time i ever used the online help/chat area.

O'C

 

[Biff]

Hi!

=IF(ISERROR(F2),TRUE,FALSE)

You don't need all that. You can shorten it to:

=ISERROR(F2)

Good luck!

Biff

 

[Biff]

Hi!

If that's the formula you want to use and it works, that's
great. However, it can be shortened by removing the 2nd
and 3rd nested IF's. They're really not needed and then
you could probably fit in the error trapping.

Extracting data and working on timesheets is my specialty!

Good luck!

Biff

 

[O'C]

I've tried to shorten it and everything i've tried up to now has failed. the
second and third nested IFs further refine my search. I've tried several
things and cannot get it to work. Right now my IFs look for the vehicle, the
low date, and the hi date. I'm all about shortening and minimizing my
formulas. I'm just starting to read and learn about the name feature.

Any additional help you could provide is greatly appreciated.

O'C

 

[O'C]

When I use the month function alone in leiu of the hi and low date feature it
just doesn't return any data, gives me the old #num! when i can clearly see
that there's data that should be retrieved.

O'C

 

[Biff]

Hi!

=INDEX(TRUCKS!$C$1:$C$21,SMALL(IF(TRUCKS!$A1:$A22=SHEET!

$A$12,IF(TRUCKS!$B$1:$B$22<=DATE(2005,MONTH(F1),31),IF
(TRUCKS!$B$1:$B22>=DATE(2005,MONTH(F1),1),ROW
($A$1:$A$21),""),""),""),ROW($A$1:$A$21)))

You can eliminate the 2nd and 3rd nested IF's by combining
those criterion into the first IF:

=INDEX(TRUCKS!$C$1:$C$21,SMALL(IF((TRUCKS!$A1:$A22=SHEET!
$A$12)*(TRUCKS!$B$1:$B$22<=DATE(2005,MONTH(F1),31))*
(TRUCKS!$B$1:$B22>=DATE(2005,MONTH(F1),1)),ROW
($A$1:$A$21),""),""),""),ROW($A$1:$A$21)))

In addition, you don't need the "" as the FALSE argument
in any of the IF's. If you properly construct an IF
formula it doesn't generate an #ERROR!. It evaluates to
either TRUE or FALSE. In this formula, any #ERROR! will be
generated in the SMALL function. IF the IF function
returns FALSE because the conditions have not been met,
the FALSE value will be passed to the SMALL function and
the SMALL function will generate the #ERROR! as a result.

=INDEX(TRUCKS!$C$1:$C$21,SMALL(IF((TRUCKS!$A1:$A22=SHEET!
$A$12)*(TRUCKS!$B$1:$B$22<=DATE(2005,MONTH(F1),31))*
(TRUCKS!$B$1:$B22>=DATE(2005,MONTH(F1),1)),ROW
($A$1:$A$21)),ROW($A$1:$A$21)))

The last reference to ROW($A$1:$A$21) is the K (number)
argument to the SMALL function. Unless you only want the
specific ordinal number of the array returned don't use
absolute referencing (the $$ signs). As written, the
formula will only return the 1st value in the SMALL array.
You can use either of these in it's place:

ROW(1:1)
ROW(A1)

Also, when you drag copy down, using absolute referencing
will keep the K argument from incrementing (which is what
you want it to do).

Biff

 

[O'C]

I never knew you could do that with the IF, how do you get to know stuff like
that? I've never seen it in the help area. I also tried your ROW but it
didn't work. It just brought back the first occurence and filled all five
rows of data with it. It didn't step to the next occurence.

Again, thanks for your help,
O'C