Excel beginner trying to use a formula that automatically fills a given cell, given a certain input.

[Struck]

Hello,

I'm currently building a very large database, in which two of the columns contain the same information, but in different forms. One column gives the name of given country in the set (eg Afghanistan) and the other column gives the abbreviation of that name (eg AFG).
I am trying to set up a formula so that every time I enter a country's name, it will automatically fill the abbreviation in, which would save a lot of time. I can do this for single countries, but I haven't been able to write a compound formula that allows for "IF (name of any country) THEN (that country's abbreviation code)".
Does anyone know how to write a formula that will allow me to do this? Take into account that this formula would be huge, as there are around 200 widely recognised states. If this won't work, are there any other options I could pursue?

Thanks!

 

[silverlucky5]

hi, might this be the kind of thing you're looking for? (see link below)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2z6borfxelj3hyk/Mr%20Excel%20Struck%20Example.xlsx?dl=0
Thinking you might want to use function VLOOKUP? Entered country abbreviations once in worksheet entitled "abbrev". Then in worksheet entitled "sheet2", enter country name in col A, and vlookup function in column b grabs the abbreviation for you from the "abbrev" worksheet. Not sure this is what you're looking for though.
Thx!