Lookups

G

Guest

I noticed Vlookups usually want entire cell contents. Is there a lookup
function that works more like a find? For example, say I want to find a word in
a description. Vlookup wants me to supply the entire description in the cell,
not a partial. How do I simulate a serch with a lookup, where I'm not matching
the entire cell content, but just trying to find the first three letters, or
maybe a section of the cells contents?
[email protected]
 
D

Don Guillett

In programming, use the FIND function for xlpart. look in vba help for FIND.
There is a good example.
 
A

Alan Beban

Spammastergrand said:
I noticed Vlookups usually want entire cell contents. Is there a lookup
function that works more like a find? For example, say I want to find a word in
a description. Vlookup wants me to supply the entire description in the cell,
not a partial. How do I simulate a serch with a lookup, where I'm not matching
the entire cell content, but just trying to find the first three letters, or
maybe a section of the cells contents?
[email protected]
???

With abcde,fghij,and klmno in A1:A3, and 1 2 3 in B1:B3

=VLOOKUP("*ghi*",a1:b3,2,0) will return 2

Alan Beban
 
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