Find Best Combination of Values in Different Columns Closest to Target Value

Chris550 

One option is a recursive VBA function. It works very well with your example, but it would bog down if the range to process is large.

Code to be copied into a module in the Visual Basic Editor:

Dim v() As Variant
Dim s() As Double
Dim m() As Long
Dim mr() As Long
Dim n1, n2 As Long
Dim t As Double
Dim d As Double
Dim c As Long

Function FindSolution(rng As Range, tgt As Double)
    v = rng.Value
    n1 = UBound(v, 1)
    n2 = UBound(v, 2)
    ReDim r(1 To n2)
    ReDim w(1 To n2)
    ReDim s(0 To n2)
    ReDim m(1 To n2)
    ReDim mr(1 To n2)
    t = tgt
    d = 10000000
    Call ProcessColumn(1)
    For c = 1 To n2
        w(c) = v(m(c), c)
    Next c
    FindSolution = w
End Function

Sub ProcessColumn(c As Long)
    Dim r As Long
    Dim i As Long
    For r = 1 To n1
        mr(c) = r
        s(c) = s(c - 1) + v(r, c)
        If s(c) <= t Then
            If c = n2 Then
                If t - s(c) < d Then
                    d = t - s(c)
                    For i = 1 To n2
                        m(i) = mr(i)
                    Next i
                End If
            Else
                Call ProcessColumn(c + 1)
            End If
        End If
    Next r
End Sub

 Use like this in a cell formula:

=FindSolution(A2:D11,G2)

The workbook must be saved as a macro-enabled workbook (*.xlsm).

See the attached sample workbook.