Using VLOOKUP on a value that changes each month

[greykitten]

Hi,

Is VLOOKUP capable of returning a number on the contents of a particular cell instead of a particular name? I looked through various articles on Chandoo but couldn't find an answer. My VLOOKUP formula works great when I use it like this:


=VLOOKUP("Juno",$B$5:$G$17,2,FALSE) to return the number of customers for Juno. In the file below, that works fine as long as cell G5 keeps Juno as the contents permanently.


https://hotfile.com/dl/224302895/9661015/VLOOKUP_Example.xls.html


But in my work, the name in cell G5 will change each month so including the name won't work. I need the VLOOKUP to retrieve the number of customers on the adjacent cell even when the name in cell G5 changes. Can you use a cell reference in VLOOKUP so that the formula returns the value of whatever name happens to be in that cell that month? Is VLOOKUP even the right formula to address that need? Your help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.


Thanks,

greykitten

 

[SirJB7]

Hi, greykitten!

If I didn't get it wrongly why don't you use this formula, as you already have the list of names in column G?

=VLOOKUP(G5,$B$5:$G$17,2,FALSE)

And copy it down as needed.

Regards!

 

[James Perry]

Hello greykitten...i've downloaded ur file & used PivotTables. It works great! Keep adding names & do a refresh.

hth

james