Forum Discussion
Excel Lookup function multiple criteria
Hi Apologies if this query is already answered but I cant for the life of me find it!
I want to interrogate the table for a specific search string generated from multiple drop downs and display the correct result In cell "N2".
Is "INDEX MATCH" the best way to do this. any help much appreciated
MW
Hello,
that sample file is really helpful. I can suggest two approaches:
Approach 1: use a helper column where you combine all the lookup criteria into a lookup key. Insert a new column after F and in the new column G enter this formula in row 2 and copy down:
=A2&B2&C2&E2
It combines all the values to one lookup key. Now you can refer to that lookup key in an Index/Match combination formula in cell M2:
=INDEX($F$2:$F$13,MATCH(I2&J2&K2&L2,$G$2:$G$13,0))
Or, if you don't want to use the helper column, you can do it all in one step, but the result may take a while to calculate if you have many rows of data. I'm still taking into account that a column G was added, so the cell references are a bit different from your original layout, but you can see it working in the attached file. In cell M3 I use the formula
=INDEX($F$2:$F$13,MATCH(I3&J3&K3&L3,INDEX($A$2:$A$13&$B$2:$B$13&$C$2:$C$13&E2:E13,0),0))
File is attached. Let me know if that helped.
Hello,
please post a data sample. Mock up the expected result, so we know what we are aiming for. You can upload a workbook to the thread here.
Thanks for replys - I've attached a version of the file which should explain what I mean better.
At the moment the table isn't very large but could eventually run into hundreds of rows of data to interrogate, hence the need for an intelligent lookup.
Much appreciated
Hello,
that sample file is really helpful. I can suggest two approaches:
Approach 1: use a helper column where you combine all the lookup criteria into a lookup key. Insert a new column after F and in the new column G enter this formula in row 2 and copy down:
=A2&B2&C2&E2
It combines all the values to one lookup key. Now you can refer to that lookup key in an Index/Match combination formula in cell M2:
=INDEX($F$2:$F$13,MATCH(I2&J2&K2&L2,$G$2:$G$13,0))
Or, if you don't want to use the helper column, you can do it all in one step, but the result may take a while to calculate if you have many rows of data. I'm still taking into account that a column G was added, so the cell references are a bit different from your original layout, but you can see it working in the attached file. In cell M3 I use the formula
=INDEX($F$2:$F$13,MATCH(I3&J3&K3&L3,INDEX($A$2:$A$13&$B$2:$B$13&$C$2:$C$13&E2:E13,0),0))
File is attached. Let me know if that helped.
The "Index Match" function is perfect if you have a double side entry table i.e. columns with options A B C D... and rows with options 1 2 3 4... (as excel itself). In that case, if you insert a letter and a number, "index match" will give you the exact cell you need.
This obviously works even with something different from letters and numbers, aka you can match Cities from Cities and you get the distance between them, with 0 on the diagonal.
Tell us some more details about that "multiple drop downs": how many? And how is structured the sheet with the raw datas?
