Give a number value to text in a drop down list.

[Jaxsondville]

I'm trying to create a cutting forces calculator, I want to be able to select what material is being used from a drop down list. The problem is the formula needs it to be a number value. On my second sheet, I have the list of materials to select from and the associated numbers in the adjacent column. I can't find any helpful information on how to give the text a number value. My cell with the drop down list is in the first sheet.

[#2 · Accepted solution]

@Jaxsondville 

You can use the VLOOKUP function for this:

=VLOOKUP(B4, 'Material List!A:B, 2, FALSE)

[#3]

Thank you, I originally was wanting it to just be one cell that had the list and somehow spat out number values as well, but I shifted the list cell to the right one column and used B4 for the VLOOKUP. This ended up making it so the number shows up in the cell, but the name is still displayed to the right.