Need function name for using one spreadsheet data to calculate values for a separate spreadsheet

[pmmille2]

Newbie question alert: I'm trying to do the following: I have a large set of patients and each one has a medical record (MR) number. At the end of every day I enter the names of the patients I saw that day into a spreadsheet, as well as their MR number. Each patient is entered on a new row every day.

I'd like to find a way to have the program automatically enter the patients' MR number next to the name, rather than my having to complete it manually.

My current skill set would lead me to write these impossibly long and inefficient formulas -- a series of IF(OR statements -- that Excel wouldn't take.

I'm SURE that there is a way to have the program scan one table of data (a spreadsheet with names and MR numbers; a separate row for each patient; each patient only entered once, when I first meet with them) to do what I want. I just don't know what that function is called. Can anyone help?

Thanks!

 

[Peter_SSs]

Do some research on the VLOOKUP function, assuming in the unique list of patient names and MR numbers ..
- the name column is to the left of the MR number column, and
- you don't have any 2 or more patients with the same name.

 

[pmmille2]

Thanks so much. This is indeed what I was looking for.
Paul

 

[Peter_SSs]

Thanks so much. This is indeed what I was looking for.
Paul

Good news. Thanks for letting us know.