Hi,
What did you mean my names and numbers - some entries are names and some
numbers, or the entries are alphanumeric?
Any way, if the names are in A2:A601 and the short name goes to B2, and you
want the result to go to C2, type in following formula in C2
=OFFSET(A2,MATCH(B2,LEFT($A$2:$A$601,LEN($B$2)),0)-1,0)
and confirm with Ctrl-Shift-Enter.
Now you can enter a short name in B2 and hit Enter; the formula should find
the full name. If the short name your enter corresponds to more than one
name in the list, it will find the first occurrence; so you have to use your
judgement to use a short name unique to each entry. The formula will return
#N/A if no match is found.
Regards,
B. R. Ramachandran