Row 1 Labels the Column and creates formula.

[joshbjames]

Is there a formula that I could use in B1 that labels the column "Date" as well as applies a VLOOKUP formula for the whole column? Please forgive this atrocious question. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to word this for clarity... My goal is to have a sheet that automatically populates when I paste values into column A


[TABLE="class: grid, width: 500"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD]orderID[/TD]
[TD]Label="Date" & formula =vlookup(A:A,dateListA:B,2,false)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]00001[/TD]
[TD]01/02/18[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]00002[/TD]
[TD]02/03/18[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]00003[/TD]
[TD]03/04/18[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]00004[/TD]
[TD]04/05/18[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]00005[/TD]
[TD]05/06/18[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]

 

[lennywatson]

If I'm understanding correctly: You want B1 to say "Date" and you want the rest of column B to have the formula, right? If you're ok with a manual step; do you know the extend/autofill mouse shortcuts? (I apologize if you know this already and were looking for something else!)
You can put a vlookup for the individual cell in B2 [=vlookup(A2,datelist,2,false) ] , select the cell, then grab the little black square on the bottom right corner of the cell and drag it down as far as you want to go. It will fill in the column with the formula, fixing the row number automatically. Or if column A is already filled in, you can double click that same little box and it will fill in as far as the end of column A.

Or is it important that the formula be added automatically each time data is entered in column A? If so, that's over my head :/

You could make it to look like the column is empty beyond the end of column A: you could fill in the formula for an excess of rows, but make the formula: =IFERROR(VLOOKUP(A2,datelist,2,FALSE),"")