Forum Discussion
Matching data from spreadsheets with uneven columns
Hi,
I have a report that contains about 13 columns (spreadsheet A) and I obtain data from another spreadsheet that contains only 7(spreadsheet B). The columns are of different length, and data that fills the rows are often duplicated. What I've been doing is using VLOOKUP and using a value from spreadsheet A to find the corresponding values in spreadsheet B. This works okay, but its very slow, repetitive, and prone to error. What I'm looking to accomplish is to use something a little more automated to avoid having to either re-type the VLOOKUP formula or use the Lookup & Reference wizard each time I move to a new column. I've tried using Index Match formulas but from what I understand columns have to be the same length in order for it to work. I also looked into Power Query but in my report, I must conserve the duplicate entries. Can anyone please offer any suggestions?
Thanks!
6 Replies
I'm having a difficult time grasping the specific nature of the difficulties. You mention different numbers of columns (13 and 7) but don't say how many rows. I gather there must be many rows, given your description of VLOOKUP being slow. You don't specify the nature of the errors to which it's prone.
Anyway, if VLOOKUP works, so, I think, should INDEX -- MATCH combinations, but maybe without any advantage other than some flexibility.
Nowadays there's also the recently added XLOOKUP, which delivers the best of all prior lookup functions ... so give it a try.
If you still have difficulties, might I suggest that you post a sample file that either IS your actual, so long as it contains no confidential or private information, OR is a dummy file that simulates or resembles the actual.
mathetes Hi Thank you for your response. I will post a sample below. In the sample, I start with a sheet that contains 7 columns and 17 rows (Sheet A). The only column that has data is the Client ID column. I need to transfer the data from Sheet B to Sheet A, and also preserve the duplicates in Sheet A. Sheet B has 7 columns and 8 rows, no duplicates. What I have been doing is using a VLOOKUP formula (=VLOOKUP(A2,B.xlsx!$A$2:$B$8,2,FALSE) in each column in Sheet A to find the corresponding data in Sheet B. The problem is I have to type this formula in every column in Sheet A to get the data from Sheet B. In my actual report, there are more columns and rows, but my overall goal is to eliminate the repetition with VLOOKUP and speed up the process of transferring the data in Sheet A. Thanks!
SHEET A
Client ID Last Name First Name Warehouse Price Q. Control Sale Price Approved Status? 40921 40921 40921 40921 17664 17664 17664 40754 40754 79481 79481 79481 79481 98540 98540 98540 SHEET B
Client ID Last Name First Name Warehouse Price Control Sale Price Approved Status? 40921 Withers Bill 50 Passed 100 Approved 17664 Mertz Ethel 200 Not Required 500 Not Approved 40754 Simmons Bobby 300 Passed 700 Approved 79481 Tucks Chris 10 Passed 50 Approved 98540 Dimond Jaime 1000 Passed 2500 Approved 99788 Piazza Mike 20 Not Required 4000 Approved 24787 John Tommy 800 Passed 400 Not Approved - Another variation that I believe will work for you. As mathetes pointed out, you need a $ in your first argument ($A2) so the column letter does not change when you copy the formula across (but the row is not fixed, so it will increment when you copy it down).
You could use the columns function to create a counter (since the column B is not fixed, it will increment as you copy the formula across). This relies on the columns in both workbooks being in the same order. Or, you can use the MATCH function as Segei has, but that will rely on both workbooks having the same header text.
Also, note the second argument references all of the columns of the table ($A$2:$G$8) and not just $A$2:$B$8.
=VLOOKUP($A2,B.xlsx!$A$2:$G$8,COLUMNS(B.xlsx!$A$2:B$2),FALSE)
