VLookup returns first non-blank cell

[jlhalliday1]

I have a management table in hierarchical order, the first column is an employee number, and the next 5 columns are levels of management up to the president in Column F

In the current worksheet, I have an employee name and number and I need to fill his immediate supervising manager. The vlookup needs to find the employee number in the management table, and then return the first column that is not blank. If someone reports directly to the president, then the first 4 columns will be blank and only the 5th column will have a name.

Employee #........Manager1......Manager2.......Manager3.....Manager4.....Manager5
12345................Jill..................Bill..................Rob..........Peter................Dillon
23456...........................................................Rob..........Peter................Dillon
34567...........................................................................Peter................Dillon 45678...................................................................................................Dillon
(EDITED: tabs didn't work, sorry for dot leaders)

Maybe VLookup isn't the proper formula, but I'm stuck with coming up with an alternative...help?

Jan

 

[NARAYANK991]

Hi Jan ,

See this file.

Narayan

 

[Haseeb A]

Hello Jan,

If you only have texts as in your example, this will work.

=HLOOKUP("*",G4:K4,1,0)