Display a description in one cell when the adjacent cell displays a unique ID

[spikelovesmetal]

I have a list of regulations that each have a unique ID. The next column is a text description of what each regulation refers to.

On a separate worksheet I want to be able to type in or select a reference in Cell C2 and have that description automatically displayed in the next column (C3):

[TABLE="class: grid, width: 500"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD="align: center"]C1[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]C2[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]C3[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: center"]Requirement[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]ID[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]Description[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: center"]Meets safety standards[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]S-19[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]The system is fire retardant[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: center"][/TD]
[TD="align: center"]S-48[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]The system has no exposed sharp edges[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]

I have tried using =IF(C2="S-3",Sheet2!B4) in Cell C3,where C2 is the box I want to fill the IDs into and Sheet2!B4 is the description of what S-3 is, but as there are 300 separate IDs with unique descriptions this is taking ages.

Is there an automated way of showing the description in Cell C3 when the unique ID is typed into C2?

 

[AlanY]

you can put all your ID/Description in a table and use a vlookup(ID) to populate the Description

 

[AlanY]

description table in Columns E and F

Excel 2012
	A	B	C	D	E	F
1	Requirement	ID	Description		ID	Description
2	Meets safety standards	S-19	The system is fire retardant		S-19	The system is fire retardant
3		S-48	The system has no exposed sharp edges		S-48	The system has no exposed sharp edges
4					S-01	etc
5					S-02	etc etc
Sheet3

Excel 2012
	C
2	The system is fire retardant
Sheet3

Cell Formulas
Range	Formula
C2	=VLOOKUP(B2,E:F,2,0)

and copy down

 

[spikelovesmetal]

Thank you! I will try this now