Forum Discussion
Do a search/sort/sum in an excel workbook and put results in another workbook
- Just pouring through this now...it is perfect, thank-you!! still playing with how i can expand etc. YOU ROCK
Me again. thank-you for your help in sept. I've been pretty lame on this by just using it, but recently had to expand it....so i read your references ....i get it. I cant figure out now, why i'm getting errors. Getting the right number, but an error flag.
If you can, see attachment. Specifically, on the SUMMARY tab : Cells J12 and and K12. When i added new tables, created names...i can only think in setting up the table i had to do something to designate the columns for formulas......idk....input appreciated.
By "error code" do you mean the yellow triangle and its associated message?
All that's doing is warning you that the formula may unintentionally be inconsistent with an adjacent formula. If in fact it's giving you the desired result, if in fact it's not in error (as you seem to be saying), that's a judgment call you can make.... and you can select "Ignore error"--essentially saying "It's not an error"--and go on about your business.
This workbook is both an impressive one, and a worrisome one--I say as an outside observer. If you are the only one to use it, the only one to maintain it, and if it's delivering the results you need, then that's fine. But I'd strongly recommend writing, even for yourself, a document that explains what each page is doing, what each formula on each page is doing, and why.... Without that kind of documentation, an Excel spreadsheet can easily go awry and create plausible but deeply erroneous results.
Spreadsheets/workbooks can become overly complicated very easily. The more you can create a fundamental design that is simple and clear, the more trustworthy it can be.
That's partly why, in an earlier posting, I said that if I were doing it, I'd not have separate tabs for each person or site (or whatever it is that those separate tabs represent); instead, I'd create a single database and do the differentiation that the tabs are doing by means of added columns. Then have a summary tab (as you do) or "dashboard" section, that does the calculations needed in tested and consistent fashion. That's a far more reliable way to have consistency in formulas and reliability in results.
You might find it helpful to read the attached article on spreadsheet design.
- thank-you. I do need to rethink the structure because my columns will be infinite but my rows will be consistent. wish I had switched and i do need to consider what you are suggesting. I will read the article, as i read the others...they helped!