Stupid Excel problem

[AgustusM]

the stupid part is me, since I use to know how to do this - but I can't remember. Hopefully one of you guys can help.

I have two tables of items with a number and a description

one table has all items and the second table has only specific items - I need to run a formula on the all items to list which ones match and which ones don't.

again I can't remember the formula and the few I have tried have not worked.

a little help, please...

[Fighter of Foo]

=VLOOKUP(CELL, TABLE, 2, FALSE)

CELL will the the number you are looking up (i.e. A2) and the TABLE will be the rows you are pulling against (ex. $D$1:$E$300)

2 indicates the number of coulumns in your table, and FALSE is the last argument. (I don't know what it means, but it's always false;) )

You'll want to put this formula in the cell next to whatever you're looking up and then fill down. Make sure to put in the dollar signs in the table function so you "lock" those values when you fill in the formula for the other cells.

Hope this helps

[AgustusM]

Thanks for the help. I was pretty sure VLOOKUP was what I wanted and I messed with it this morning to no avail.

I tried your suggestion and initially had no luck, but I think I have got something out of whack. the fact that you suggested VLOOKUP though means I was on the right track so I will continue down that road - thanks.

[AgustusM]

man my brain was NOT working today, definitely my old age showing.

the good news is it was VLOOKUP that I needed and the way I was doing it and the suggestion (thanks again) were both correct.

the part where by brain was AWOL was I was essentially comparing apples to oranges - my wife who does spend a great deal of her work day in excel looked at it for about 10 minutes and pointed it out. Once I started using the correct data all fell into place.