Forum Discussion

Copper Contributor

Oct 10, 2019

Solved

Help with a formula to sort dimensions?

Hello, I am trying to determine which excel formula would be the best to create a spread sheet that will automatically input the dimensions for lumber into a given cell. The excerpt below shows t...

excel

Formulas and Functions

Twifoo
Oct 10, 2019
Hi J-Griff,
In the attached file, the formula for Thick in B2 is:
=LEFT($E2,
FIND("x",$E2)-1)
Moreover, the formula for Width in C2 is:
=MID($E2,
FIND("x",$E2)+1,
FIND("-",$E2)-FIND("x",$E2)-1)
Finally, the formula for Length in D2 is:
=MID($E2,
FIND("-",$E2)+1,
FIND(" ",$E2)-FIND("-",$E2)-1)
CharExtracts.xlsx9 KB

Smitty Smith

Iron Contributor

Oct 10, 2019

J-Griff I'd build a lookup table that you can reference.

Thick	Width	Length	Grade/Description
1	12	12	1X12-12 D GRADE WHITE
1	6	10	1X 6-10 D&BTR WHITE
1	6	12	1X 6-12 D&BTR WHITE
1	4	10	1X 4-10 ROUGH WHITE
1	4	12	1X 4-12 ROUGH WHITE

You can set it up as an Excel table, and use a Data Validation drop-down list to select the Grade/Description. Then use INDEX/MATCH to populate the Thick | Length |Width fields.

HTH