Automating Repetitive Tasks

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Three week ago I visited the Newton Excel Bach web site where I spotted the Dynamically Defined Dancing Pendulums NewtonExcelBach.

Having noticed that Doug had done a nice animation in Strand7 (a Finite Element Analysis program) Strand7, I thought “I can do that in Excel” and so I did.

This post will not go through the logic of constructing and animating the pendulums in Excel as I have described that over at Excelhero.com and readers who are interested are encouraged to visit there and explore the techniques used.

During the Pendulum project I came across two sub-projects which I felt are worthy of a post here at Chandoo.org as they are a great demonstration of some basic VBA techniques as well as demonstrating the ability of VBA to quickly simplify repetitive tasks.

Sample files are attached for Excel 97-2003 and Excel 2007/10 users to follow through the examples.

 

PENDULUM SIDE PROJECTS

The Pendulum project consists of 16 Pendulums. Each Pendulum requires 4 Named Formulas, meaning that the projects needs 64 Named Formulas for the 16 Pendulum, as well as adding 16 Series to the chart.

Huis_Excel_Dancing_Pendulums

(The above animated GIF is a very poor representation of the smooth scrolling achieved in the Excel animation)

I thought it would be a great idea to see if these jobs could be automated and hopefully save some time during the process.

The result was 2 simple VBA routines which will be described below:

 

NAMED FORMULAS

Each Pendulum in the project was based around 4 Named Formulas

Named Formula for each Pendulum

p1Len =’1′!$B$9                                                   The Length is stored on the worksheet.

p1o =OMax*SIN(SQRT(g/p1Len)*t)      Current angular position of Pendulum 1 at time t

p1x =p1Len*SIN(p1o)*{0;1}                      Current orthogonal X position of Pendulum 1 at time t

p1y =-p1Len*COS(p1o)*{0;1}                   Current orthogonal Y position of Pendulum 1 at time t

 

The only difference between the formulas for Pendulum 1 and Pendulum 2 etc is the replacement of the names of p1 with p2 in the various Named Formulas and of the associated formulas.

On a worksheet Named Formulas a number of formulas were written which display the Named Formulas as required above. Then a small VBA routine was written which loads the Named Formulas.

How

On the Named Formulas worksheet, I have added two columns of formulas for the various Named Formulas required.

For the Pendulum Length Named Formulas


For the Pendulum Angular Position Named Formulas


For the Pendulum X Position Named Formulas


For the Pendulum Y Position Named Formulas


When the formula above are copied down they adjust for the various pendulums numbered 1 to 16 based on the row numbers.

I then setup a VBA routine, Load_Named_Ranges, shown below which loads the Named Formulas.

To Use

Select some or all of the required Named Formulas from the Name Column. That is the code will only load the Selected Named Formulas, allowing the user to load 1 or 2 Named Formulas, for testing purposes, or all the Named Formulas if you choose.

Then Execute the Load_Named_Ranges subroutine either using the Big Red Button or directly within the VBA Editor.

The following will load Named Formulas p3Len to p7Len.

The Load_Named_Ranges subroutine is shown below:

Sub Load_Named_Ranges()
Dim c As Range
For Each c In Selection
ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add Name:=c.Text, RefersTo:=c.Offset(, 1).Text
Next
End Sub

What does the code do?

The code:

1. Defines the start and name of the subroutine,

Sub Load_Named_Ranges()

2. Defines a variable c as a Range object,

Dim c As Range

3. It then loops through each cell in the selection and assigns it to the variable ‘c’;

For Each c In Selection

4. It then adds a new Named Formula,extracting the Name from the Text Value of ‘c’ and extracts the formula from the cell directly to the right of cell ‘c’;

ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add Name:=c.Text, RefersTo:=c.Offset(, 1).Text

The Name and Formula (RefersTo) both use the Text of the cell, which is what is displayed.

5. It then loops through each cell in the selection until it has done them all;

Next

6. Defines the end of the subroutine;

End Sub

Lets Test It

To test the subroutine we will first delete all the Named Formulas beginning with “p”

Goto the Formula Ribbon Bar and select Name Manager

Select all the Named Formulas that begin with “P” and press the delete button

Accept any warnings

Try and Run the Pendulum’s

Nothing happens as there are no formulas

Ensure the Pendulum are turned off, as the code is still running behind the scenes.

Now Goto the Named Formulas Page

Select all the Named Formula Names in Name Column; B3:B66

Click the Load Named Formulas, button

Go back to Page 1 and try and run the Pendulums now.

 

ADD CHART SERIES

The second sub-project was the addition of 16 Chart series to the Chart, 1 for each Pendulum.

Using the logic of the Named Formulas VBA code above, the 16 Chart Series Names, X Values and Y values were developed using formulas on the Add Cht Series worksheet and then loading into a chart using a simple VBA routine.

The Add_Cht_Series subroutine is in the Add Cht Series sheet object in the VBA editor.

How

On the Add Cht Series worksheet, I have added three columns of formulas for the various Named Formulas required.

For the Pendulum Name, X Range and Y Range.

When these formulas are copied down they adjust for the various pendulums numbered 1 to 16.

I have then setup a VBA routine, Add_Chart_Series, shown below which loads the Named Formulas.

To use Select some or all of the required Chart Series from the Pendulum Name column.

Then Execute the Add_Chart_Series subroutine using the big red button.

The Add_Chart_Series subroutine is shown below:

Sub Add_Cht_Series()
Dim sNumb As Integer
Dim c As Range
Worksheets(“1”).ChartObjects(“Chart 5”).Activate
For Each c In Worksheets(“Add Cht Series”).Range(“B19:b20”)
sNumb = ActiveChart.SeriesCollection.Count + 1
ActiveChart.SeriesCollection.NewSeries
ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(sNumb).Name = c.Text
ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(sNumb).XValues = c.Offset(, 1).Text
ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(sNumb).Values = c.Offset(, 2).Text
Next
End Sub

What does the code do?

The code:

1. Defines the start and name of the subroutine,

Sub Add_Cht_Series()

2. Defines a variable sNumb as an integer,  and a variable c as a Range object

Dim sNumb As Integer
Dim c As Range

3. It then activates the Chart containing the pendulum

Worksheets(“1”).ChartObjects(“Chart 5”).Activate

4. It then loops through each cell in the Range defined by the Range, in this case B19:B20 and assigns it to the variable ‘c’;  You can adjust the Range to suit.

For Each c In Worksheets(“Add Cht Series”).Range(“B19:B20”)

5. It then counts how many existing series are in the chart and sets the next Series Number sNumb to that value + 1.

sNumb = ActiveChart.SeriesCollection.Count + 1

6. The next 4 lines add a new series to the chart and setup the new series Name, X Value and Y Values. The Name, X Value and Y Values are retrieved from the Text of the cell c and the adjacent two cells using a Range Offset modifier

ActiveChart.SeriesCollection.NewSeries
ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(sNumb).Name = c.Text
ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(sNumb).XValues = c.Offset(, 1).Text
ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(sNumb).Values = c.Offset(, 2).Text

7. It then loops through each cell in the selection until it has done them all;

Next

8. Define the end of the subroutine;

End Sub

Lets Test It

To test the subroutine we will first delete a few of the Chart Series

Select the Chart

Select two Pendulums noting the series Number of the Bobs eg: 9 & 10

Goto the Add Chart Series Worksheet

Note the Range Corresponding to the 2 missing Pendulum B11:B12

Goto the VBA Editor

Adjust the Line

For Each c In Worksheets(“Add Cht Series”).Range(“B11:B12”)


With your cursor in the Subroutine press F5 once only

Go back to Page 1 and you should now have 2 New Pendulum

Run the Pendulums now.

You will have to manually set the shape of the Bobs to a Circle and size 15 and re-arrange the order of the series to ensure they are in order, but you can practice that manually.

SUMMARY

The post has shown how using some very simple VBA and a bit of lateral thinking to put together some simple tools to simplify 2 common and repetitive tasks.

In the Named Formulas case, the code took less than 2 minutes for me to write and then another 5 minutes to do the formulas for the Named Formulas. I didn’t try but I am sure it would have taken a good 20+ minutes to enter 64 Named Formulas.

Writing this post took much longer than doing the whole Pendulum Project.

Two examples during my working career, where VBA code has been used to save massive amounts of time and money:

In the first case I wrote some code to combine data from several hundred workbooks with varying numbers of sheets up to 30 and differing quantities of data on each sheet, a task that could have taken weeks manually with the included opportunity for errors to be introduced, into a subroutine which took 30 minutes to run and gave a printout of the results including what files, sheets and rows of data were included in the import.

In a second case a Number of Workbooks, a Word template and some VBA code was used to replace a person whose sole job was to manage that data. This job saved the company $50k+ per annum and the task was given to a clerical person who could now do the task in their spare time.

LINKS

Huis Excel Hero Pendulum: http://www.excelhero.com/blog/

Pendulum Physics: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/pend.html

Newton Excel Bach: http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/2011/05/25/dancing-pendulums-2/

 

What could your simplify by using automation within Excel ?

What could you simplify or speedup using Excel automation?

Let us know in the comments below:

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60 Responses

  1. My most often used variation of this is to remove blanks from a list.

    Suppose column A contains information but some of the rows are blank. I want to return a continuous list of information without the blanks so I do…

    Your original formula looks like this:
    =IFERROR(INDEX($B$1:$B$20,SMALL(IF($A$1:$A$20=$E$2,ROW($A$1:$A$20)),ROW()-2),1),””)

    I want to look for non-blanks and all my data is in column A so I change it to:
    =IFERROR(INDEX($A$1:$A$20,SMALL(IF($A$1:$A$20″”,ROW($A$1:$A$20)),ROW()-2),1),””)

    Ctrl+Shift+Enter, fill down and ta-da! A nice continuous list of information without any blanks.

    1. =IFERROR(INDEX($A$1:$A$20,SMALL(IF($A$1:$A$20″”,ROW($A$1:$A$20)),ROW()-2),1),””)

      The original post chopped out my ‘does not equal’ for some reason. This is how it should look

      1. And again ?????

        My sincerest apologies Sohail, I didn’t mean to trash your comments section like this. I’ll stop replying now.

    2. Hi Sir,

      I am not able get any value by using below formula.
      =IFERROR(INDEX(DeliveriesMaster!$H:$H,SMALL(IF(Criteria!$A$3=DeliveriesMaster!$A:$A,ROW(DeliveriesMaster!$H:$H)-7,””),ROW()-3)),””)

      I want try

      help me

  2. Great stuff. I laughed. I cried. I hurled.

    Personally I would use a PivotTable and Gordon Ramsay. But hey…as long as we cook the books, then each to their own, I’d say.

  3. I won’t recommend the use of ROW()-2 because everything gets mess if you insert a row(s) before the row 2. The alternative would be ROWS(E$3:E3).

    Regards

    1. Hi Elias,
      I tried doing what you have suggested here.
      Ading any additional row messes up everything like you siad. But using the formula that you have suggested, shows only one value for the entire array. Would you please help me undersatand your method. I feel I may not be doing it correctly.
      Regards

  4. I’ve been using data with multiple occurrences for awhile now, and was glad to see the question I’ve been trying to ask and don’t know how finally got answered. Now if I can be brave enough to use this, is another question.
    What I usually do is just add another column to the end of my data =IF((COUNTIF($B$2:B2,B2))=1,1,””) where B is my unique identifier and then just do multiple COUNTIFS with it.
    For multiple Occurrences and Criterias, I just add another column to Concatenate my unique identifier and the other criteria =$B2&” “&$C2, then add another column using the same =IF((COUNTIF($B$2:B2,B2))=1,1,””) but this time use the column where I placed the concatenated data.
    Any ideas how to lessen the number of columns I use without using any Arrays or VBA’s?

    1. Hi Mando,
      Are you pretty much asking for an alternative way to do this without VBA/Array Formulas? If so, I would recommend not doing that, Arrays make things a bit easier. The method you wrote looks like it will increase work, I’m always in search of efficiency in the long term 🙂

  5. It’s both illogical and unnecessary to use a construction for SMALL’s (or LARGE’s) k parameter which consists of the ROW function (either in its unqualified form, i.e. ROW(), or with a reference, e.g. ROW(A1)) +/- some constant.

    Not only is such a construction necessarily dependent upon the row number in which the user decides to place the initial formula in the series, but it is also susceptible to error upon row insertions within the sheet.

    ROWS (i.e. ROWS($1:1), or ROWS(A$1:A1) if you prefer) gives precisely the same results, though suffers from neither of these two drawbacks:

    http://excelxor.com/2014/08/25/row-vs-rows-for-consecutive-integer-generation/

    Regards

  6. @Elias and XOR LX, great point and while I use the construct you mentioned in other things, I never really gave it too much thought since I owuldn’t readily insert rows in this sort of thing.

    I love the rule of ROW(A1) +/- constant being illogical! Any time I can eliminate something from my arsenal due to redundancy is good. Much appreciated and once again this sort of exchange is precisely why we love Chandoo 🙂

  7. I like this technique a lot and *will* be using it. However how can it be done in 2D. E.g I have a 3 by four table (12 items) and each items is either an “Apple” or an “Orange”. I want to get the row and column position of each occurrence of “Apple” and of “Orange”? How would I do this?

  8. @Mr J

    When you say “row and column position”, do you mean relative positions or absolute? For example, if your table was in A10:D12, and the first occurrence of “Orange” was in cell B11, would you want 11 (absolute) or 2 (relative) returned for the row position?

    Regards

  9. The master database contain name, designation, salary, passport no, expiry date, joining date, project no. camp name, floor no., flat no., room no., around 20 more column, and this is more than 500 staff member.

    i want to make report for the camp and i want use the employee ID to transfer their name, designation, flat no., and their room no only to other sheet using VBA code.

    Please help me.

    Thanks

  10. This was a great post and I learned a lot. i am attempting to do exactly what this post was about with the exception of direction, i want to go across not down. is this possible?

  11. To summarize for those who will not take the time to go through the whole comments list (and who therefore will avoid some brain overload and save some grey cells), use at the end of your array formulas

    ROWS($1:1) instead of ROW()-2

    it additionally is more intuitive for understanding the formula:
    ROWS($1:1) => displays 1st result
    ROWS($1:3) => displays 3rd result

    Thanks all for this posts & comments

    Skrattoune

    1. in the Multiple Occurrences fomula, we couldnt get the second line since its not appear, but when we check your file, i saw there is {} brackets before equal but when we extract it we couldnt see it. how to do that?

  12. Very useful post. I worked with the downloadable workbook and did some experimenting to see how each part of the formulas worked. Although I understood most of it, I have a question. What if I wanted the results of my search for each person to be listed by column instead of by row?

  13. Hi all,
    thanks for the contribution, it helped a lot.

    But what if I need to get the average of the multiple values I get?
    Is there a way to get the average of these multiple values directly (without listing them beforehand…my sheet is already busy)?

    thanks a lot.

  14. Mr. Doo, you are so funny! I did not know the multiple occurrences could be done without a (trial and error) macro.
    You make it fun to make a complicated task a Can – Do ! Thanks!

  15. Hi,
    It looks super helpful.
    However, whatever I do it feels I’m almost there… but every time it’s a mirage.
    I’ve a (very) big data table consisting of multiple parameters (about 10) for every value in column A. A problem – same A value may (or may not) appear multiple times in my big table. Luckily, the repetition is always in clusters – one after another (and after the cluster ends, there is no more same A).
    The goal – I’ve a subset of data consisting of arbitrary values of column A (each one repeats only once), and I want to get all the parameters for all them (including for the as much as there is same A values). With you function, it fills nicely automatically for only the first A, but only once (without considering multiple occurrence), and then jumps to the next one.
    Is there a way to solve this (without tediously manually inserting N rows number for N A’s)? I prefer not using macro’s.
    Thank you,
    Julia

  16. Does anyone know how to summarise the following data to return the record vertically under the expected result?

    Much appreciated …

    Data is from A1 to D3
    Name “Asset Name#1″,”Asset Name#2″,”Asset Name#3”
    ABC Asset 1 Asset 2
    ZXY Asset 1

    Expected Result:
    Name: Asset Name
    ABC Asset 1
    ABC Asset 2
    ZXY Asset 1

  17. Hi

    What if I have multiple criteria I need to do this for? So in your example, instead of just “Tom Yorke”, I had a list of first and last names I needed to identify all instances of in a larger file. How would I go about doing that? Thanks!!

  18. Hi,
    I have 2 sets of name lists in a spreadsheet and need to find whether the same set of names repeat in the consecutive rows. can anyone please help me.

  19. hi dear
    i have a list of persons(First name space last name) in column A. multiple values are equal to first name and last name. ie. A kumar, b kumar alok das, alok ranjan. now i want multiple entries of all matching first name or second name as per my choice, what is the solution.

  20. Hi,
    I have 10 rows. in row 1 there are multiple columns. in few colums some values are present. just i wants to count the coulmn number of first record. how do i get it ?

    example

    A B C D E F G H I J
    10 13 19 12 –> here number 10 position is 3
    11 2 5 8 –> here number 11 position is 1
    23 45 48 –> here number 23 position is 2

    1. @Arvind
      Try:
      =INDEX(COLUMN(A1:E1),MATCH(TRUE,INDEX(A1:E1<>0,),0)) Ctrl+Shift+Enter

      Copy down

      Change Column E to match the last column of your data

  21. Hi
    I wonder if you have any tutorial (preferably in video format) concerning your technique of sorting a data table in a dashboard based on user choice control button
    Thank you

  22. Great post! Thanks for presenting a solution to a problem I had. However, how do I expand this to search across multiple worksheets? Thanks!

  23. Just to say that you have been the only person I’ve found to bother explaining the rationale behind your function choices. There were other articles on the internet where people didn’t bother to make the effort. Many thanks.

  24. Is there a text character limit to this formula? It works when I enter a few sentences, but not when I have 10 sentences.

      1. this is the formula I’m running:

        =IFERROR(INDEX(Input!$A$1:$R$201,SMALL(IF(IFERROR(SEARCH($E$2,Input!$D$1:$D$201)>0,FALSE),ROW(Input!$D$1:$D$201)),ROW()-5),COLUMN()),””)

        and when I have this text paragraph on the sheet I’m pulling from, it won’t pull in:

        “We do need a fair amount of analysis in advance of the meeting. Let’s start with a sensitivity analysis at plan value under various assumptions in terms of what lenders take – say 50% up to 100% in 5% increments. Need to understand dilution at various points to each side as we negotiate. If we can get that in the next hour or so, we can figure out what else would be helpful to negotiations. ”

        But when I shorten it to:

        “We do need a fair amount of analysis in advance of the meeting. Let’s start with a sensitivity analysis at plan value under various assumptions in terms of what lenders take – say 50% up to 100% in 5% increments.”

        It works then..

  25. I like your work. the tread has been very informative.
    What I am trying to do get the multiple occurrences fill in columns not rows. AKA while you example has results in a the following format:
    Thom Yorke
    3
    8
    10
    12
    18

    I want the result to be
    Thom Yorke 3 8 10 12 18

    Can you assist with this change?

  26. Great work in this article! Very well explained!

    But i need some help…

    I want to use the Multiple Occurrences and Multiple Criteria with the Partial Text Search.

    Example:
    1st criteria: G11
    2nd criteria: Varnish
    3rd criteria: 1503/5

    And i want to use in the 3rd criteria only the “1503” to seeach 1503/5, 1503/6 and 1503/7.

    Can you help me with this issue?

  27. Hi chandoo, thanks for your wonderful work.

    I am in stuck to find a solution to extract multiple rows (by using index+ small+ if) and extract the multi columns to its rows.(multicolumn data should be combined as single).
    I repeated the index function three time to get three column’s data and combine it with wild character and got the required answer. But feel this can be done in better way. so Could you please help to simplify the below formula in alternative way.

    {=IFERROR(INDEX(Table1,SMALL(IF(Table1[Tag trim]=LEFT(F75,8),ROW(Table1[Tag trim])-1),1),COLUMN(Table1[MAX. LENGTH (mm)
    (22)]))&” X “&INDEX(Table1,SMALL(IF(Table1[Tag trim]=LEFT(F75,8),ROW(Table1[Tag trim])-1),1),COLUMN(Table1[MAX. WIDTH (mm)(24)]))&” X “&INDEX(Table1,SMALL(IF(Table1[Tag trim]=LEFT(F75,8),ROW(Table1[Tag trim])-1),1),COLUMN(Table1[HEIGHT (mm)
    (23)])),””)}

  28. Hi. Your help in excel is great. It has being very helpfull in a project I am working on.

    I got a question about Multiple Occurrences: I am trying to get all different values from the a same date and return values horizontally.
    It ls like this:

    Date provider
    June 2 A
    June 2 A
    May 3 A
    May 3 A
    May3 B
    April 4 B
    April 4 B
    April 4 B
    April 4 C
    April 4 C
    April 4 A

    Could you please help me with the formula?

  29. I’ve got a lot of hints from this post and was able to get almost there with my task but there is one problem – string length. I have a long list of stuff given in consequtive columns. I need to peak certain type of data (long string) and put them together in one cell. The text type comes after the text, so schematically one raw of the data looks like this (where Ty My Wy Oni etc is the Type and it repeats):
    Text_A Ty Text_B My Text_C Wy Text_D Oni Text_E Ja Text_F Ty Text_G My Text_H Wy Text_I Oni Text_J Ja Text_K Ty Text_L My Text_M Wy Text_N Oni Text_O Ja Text_P Ty Text_R My Text_S Wy

    What I want is “Text_A, Text_F, Tekst_K, Text_P” if the search=”Ty”
    The following works if the string in Text_X is <256; if logner -forget it
    =TEXTJOIN(", ";TRUE;IF($C$4:$AL$4="Ty";$B$4:$AK$4;""))
    same with error handling
    =TEXTJOIN(", ";TRUE;IFERROR(IF($C$4:$AL$4="Ty";$B$4:$AK$4;"");""))

    Most of the Index – Small etc solutions take up several cells to work and that is not an option this time. Any hints, please?

  30. Hi Chandoo,

    I have been brainstorming this from past couple of months. I work in reporting team and during month end I pull all incident report which has changed priority from P1-P2-P3-P4, P2-P3-P4 or P3 to P4. Currently, I am performing it manually (4000+ count). Below is the sample excel where I would highlight in a different color if priority changes from P1-P2-P3-P4, P2-P3-P4 or P3 to P4. So basically I want to check column A if it has more than 2 similar value it should check the final priority in column B based on Column C’s updated time and it should return value as P1-P2-P3-P4, P2-P3-P4 or P3 to P4 in Column D.

    Number Priority Start time
    INC0281369 Priority 2 2017-07-03 13:01:07
    INC0281369 Priority 4 2017-07-03 13:04:29
    INC0281696 Priority 3 2017-07-26 21:20:16
    INC0281696 Priority 4 2017-07-27 00:06:21
    INC0281962 Priority 3 2017-07-01 01:13:41
    INC0281962 Priority 4 2017-07-01 04:21:12
    INC0281974 Priority 3 2017-07-01 01:35:41
    INC0281974 Priority 4 2017-07-01 03:25:14
    INC0281976 Priority 3 2017-07-01 01:40:25
    INC0281976 Priority 4 2017-07-01 03:26:29
    INC0281985 Priority 2 2017-07-01 02:03:38
    INC0281985 Priority 3 2017-07-04 18:29:34
    INC0281987 Priority 2 2017-07-01 02:06:38

    Any help would be appreciated

  31. You have done a great job, Bravo!
    I want the same result but my “Das hoff” is in multiple sheets. Can you please be kind enough to give me the formula to have the same output but the searches are in different sheets.

    Thanks in advance.

    Nadeem

  32. Hi! Your instruction is great on this however I am still stuck with my formula. I revert back to INDEX/MATCH but I know my data is skewed. I really hope you can help!

    I am working with two worksheets, CREDIT _MEMO_ACCRUAL_MASTER & CM_12 – I will reference them as WS A& WS B.
    WS A is the master where my formula starts in column 15, row 2. My index/match is based on multiple criteria, Invoice # & Sku, to lookup the Original Invoice Date from Index sheet WS B. WS B only contains original invoice date, sku, credit date and amount.

    WS A:
    INVOICE# SKU RESULT FROM WS B
    139591 XYZ (BLANK)
    139612 ABC 12/11/2017

    Currently in “RESULT FROM WS B”
    =IFERROR(INDEX(CM_12!$B$2:$B$602,MATCH(CREDIT_MEMO_ACCRUAL_MASTER!B2&CREDIT_MEMO_ACCRUAL_MASTER!F2,CM_12!$D$2:$D$602&CM_12!$F$2:$F$602,0)),0)

    The trouble is this:
    WS B has reoccuring original invoice date and sku. In other words – invoice 139612 on credit date 11/30/2017 may have several different “original invoice dates” and 10 returned skus, therefore show up in 10 different rows.
    WB S:
    Invoice # Original invoice date Credit date SKU
    139612 08/08/2017 11/30/2017 1234
    139612 08/21/2017 11/30/2017 5678
    139612 08/30/2017 11/30/2017 1234

    I need a formula that will recognize the exact original invoice date for an invoice # and sku. Currently my index/match as you know only results in the first instance.

    I tried your index/small/if formula but it didnt work for me. index/small/if is very new to me so I am sure i was doing it wrong somewhere.

    I really hope you can help!
    Happy New Year!

  33. Hi All,

    Great post, which I come back to multiple times !!

    Can anyone explain to me how to amend the formula when you want to either exclude (e.g. all the lines NOT concerning DAS HOFF) rather than select a certain value, or when you want to allow more than one value (e.g. the lines where DAS HOFF is linked to US or UK)

    Thanks for your help.

    Geert.

  34. Great post!

    How do I get the output of the multiple occurrences into another coloum instead of on the same row?

    Thanks

  35. Thanks for the aide. I have been using this formula but the step by step explanation you have given makes me understand now completely the inside chemistry as to what is happening. Keep it up.

  36. Hi Chandoo

    I’ve replicated your exact spreadsheet and it works perfectly, thanks! For my actual application, I’m using a Named Table where:

    $B$1:$B$20 = Chandoo[PointlessThing]
    $A$1:$A$20 = Chandoo[Person]

    Replacing the fixed cell references with the Table[Column] values the array formula produces an output that is one cell below what the actual value is. For example, if my lookup value is Das Hoff with the named table I get Amnesiac, Raging, Limb King, Krautrock, Erasing. When I just use the cell references I get Talented, Knightrider, Baywatcher, SpongeBob, Krautrock. As you can see, outputs when using the named table are actually one row below the intended output.

    I’ve varied the formula, from completely deleting the -2 in …ROW()-2, to trying 0-3. I can never get the named table formula to output the same results as the cell reference formula.

    I’ve noticed the lateral distance doesn’t matter, only the relative horizontal distance, so for that reason my named table formula starts in cell E3, referencing E2 as the lookup value, and my cell reference formula starts in cell G3, referencing G2 as the lookup value. The Person/PointlessThing columns begin at A1 and B1. The table is named “Chandoo.” So my named table references are Chandoo[Person] and Chandoo[PointlessThings].

    As a final note, I’m using data validation, referencing the Person column of the named table as my lookup values in cells E2 and G2.

    1. So I retried the formula with dragging ranges (which automatically populates the range name) and I got this:

      =IFERROR(INDEX(Chandoo[[#All],[PointlessThing]],SMALL(IF(Chandoo[[#All],[Person]]=$F$3,ROW(Chandoo[[#All],[Person]])),ROW()-2),1),””)

      And it works!

      Originally I was hand typing it to make sure I got it all right and was entering this:

      =IFERROR(INDEX(Chandoo[PointlessThing],SMALL(IF(Chandoo[Person]=$F$3,ROW(Chandoo[Person])),ROW()-2),1),””)

      As you can see, I was missing [#All] preceding the column reference.

      That said, this also works when referencing another sheet in the workbook, as long as the relative positions stay the same.

      What I’ve run into now is this: Where I want the multiple occurrences to appear are ‘Visit Tear Sheet!F12:F16’

      The drop-down data validation is Visit Tear Sheet!F8

      The table location is ‘Visit Log’B49:C148

      I’ve kinda buried the table at the bottom of a spreadsheet because I don’t want non-tech saavy users to easily find it and screw it up. I know I could let it rest on a separate sheet starting at A1 like our sample data set, but I’m trying to keep the number of sheets to a minimum to keep the weight of the file down.

  37. Have you ever had to do this using Power Query? Or, know of a way to do something similar, but using Power Query? I have a huge workbook that uses a method similar to yours, but it’s way to slow using the SMALL and ROW formula so I’m trying to speed it up, but by using PQ. Thank you so much in advance for any help!

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