Here is a simple yet novel use of formulas. Let us say you have a list of values in range A1:A5 and you want to reverse the list.
In an empty cell write =INDEX($A$1:$A$5,6-ROWS($A$1:A1)) and copy down.
Boom, you get the reversed list.
Here is how the formula works:
- In the reversed list, first item is last item in the original list (ie 5th item in our case).
- INDEX() formula takes a list, a row number (and optional column number) and returns the value at intersection.
- In this case, $A$1:$A$5 is the list.
- 5 is the size of list.
- ROWS($A$1:A1) gives running numbers from 1 thru 5 when copied in any range of 5 cells. Read more on using ROWS() formula.
More on lists: Shuffle a list of numbers | Sort a list of texts using formulas | Remove duplicates from a list
6 Responses to “Using Lookup Formulas with Excel Tables [Video]”
H1 !
this is my very first comment.
Can you use same technique with Excel 2003 lists ?
thanks 😀
Thanks, Chandoo! I like seeing the sneak peak of what's to come on Friday too 🙂
@Damian.. Welcome to chandoo.org. Thanks for the comments.
Yes, you can use the same with Excel 2003 lists too.
@Tom.. You have seen future and its awesome.. isnt it?
[…] Using Tables – Video 1, Video 2 […]
[…] Using Tables – Video 1, Video 2 […]
Hi, is there a vlookup formula for the second example (IDlist)? I used a similar formula to look up the ID for the person, but the reverse way (look up the person with the ID) comes up N/A.