Changing cell based on set value

[Justastarted]

I'm trying to have a table where if you enter a letter in one cell it will give a number in a different cell. So if A1=A then B2=1, if A1=B then B2=2. I've written a formula in colum B something like this:
=If(A1="A",1,(if(A1="b",2,if(A1="c" etc......
I have about 20-40 different codes to go through and the formula is getting rediculous. It works the way I want it to, but is there an easier way to do what I'm trying to do?

 

[t0azt]

You could make a table on a separate sheet. Column A has the letters Column B the corresponding numbers and use vlookup.

 

[kweaver]

Put your 2-column table somewhere with the 1st column being what will show up in A1 and the 2nd column what you want depending on A1.

Then, use VLOOKUP to populate your B column.

=VLOOKUP(A1,$F$1:$G$100,2,false)

where, for example, F1:G100 contains the table you reference.

This has NO error checking if the value in your A column doesn't exist in the table.