Vlookup or not

Don Fardie

New Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2014
Messages
23
Trying to create a spreadsheet where the user can pick a Machine from one cell, then pick the Material to run in the machine from another cell and based on those 2 inputs the cost per Kg is shown in another cell. The idea is to use drop down menus for the selections. Is that possible to use Data Validation Lists in a VLOOKUP formula or should I be doing it another way. Not trying to over think this, but kind of a newbie to VLOOKUP formulas!!
Thanks in advance.........Don
 

Excel Facts

Which Excel functions can ignore hidden rows?
The SUBTOTAL and AGGREGATE functions ignore hidden rows. AGGREGATE can also exclude error cells and more.
You could do something like this:

ABCDEFGHIJ
MachineMaterialCostMachineMaterialMachineMaterialCost
TwoPlasticOneTinOneTin
TwoPaperOnePaper
ThreePlasticOnePlastic
GlassOneGlass
TwoTin
TwoPaper
TwoPlastic
TwoGlass
ThreeTin
ThreePaper
ThreePlastic
ThreeGlass

<colgroup><col style="width: 25pxpx"><col><col><col><col><col><col><col><col><col><col></colgroup><thead>
</thead><tbody>
[TD="align: center"]1[/TD]

[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: center"]2[/TD]

[TD="align: right"]7[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]

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[TD="align: right"]1[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]3[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
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[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"]2[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]4[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
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[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]

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[TD="align: center"]5[/TD]
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[TD="align: right"]5[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]7[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
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[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]8[/TD]
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[TD="align: right"]7[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]9[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
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[TD="align: right"]8[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]10[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
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[TD="align: right"]9[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]11[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
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[TD="align: right"][/TD]
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[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"]10[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]12[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"]11[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]13[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"]12[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]14[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]

</tbody>
Sheet7

[TABLE="width: 85%"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD]Array Formulas[TABLE="width: 100%"]
<thead>[TR="bgcolor: [URL=https://www.mrexcel.com/forum/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=DAE7F5]#DAE7F5[/URL] "]
[TH="width: 10px"]Cell[/TH]
[TH="align: left"]Formula[/TH]
[/TR]
</thead><tbody>[TR]
[TH="width: 10px, bgcolor: [URL=https://www.mrexcel.com/forum/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=DAE7F5]#DAE7F5[/URL] "]C2[/TH]
[TD="align: left"]{=INDEX(J2:J13,MATCH(A2&"|"&B2,H2:H13&"|"&I2:I13,0))}[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]
Entered with Ctrl+Shift+Enter. If entered correctly, Excel will surround with curly braces {}.
Note: Do not try and enter the {} manually yourself[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]



You have a list of your machines in E, your materials in F, and then a combined list with costs in H:J. Then in A2 you can put a drop-down pointing to E2:E4, in B2 you have a drop-down pointing to F2:F5, then you can put the formula in C2 to look up the cost.

This should give you some ideas.
 
Upvote 0
You could do something like this:

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
Machine
Material
Cost
Machine
Material
Machine
Material
Cost
Two
Plastic
One
Tin
One
Tin
Two
Paper
One
Paper
Three
Plastic
One
Plastic
Glass
One
Glass
Two
Tin
Two
Paper
Two
Plastic
Two
Glass
Three
Tin
Three
Paper
Three
Plastic
Three
Glass

<tbody>
[TD="align: center"]1
[/TD]

[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: center"]2
[/TD]

[TD="align: right"]7
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"]1
[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]3
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"]2
[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]4
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"]3
[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]5
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"]4
[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]6
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"]5
[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]7
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"]6
[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]8
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"]7
[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]9
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"]8
[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]10
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"]9
[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]11
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"]10
[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]12
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"]11
[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]13
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]

[TD="align: right"]12
[/TD]

[TD="align: center"]14
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]

</tbody>
Sheet7

[TABLE="width: 85%"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD]
Array Formulas[TABLE="width: 100%"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TH]Cell
[/TH]
[TH="align: left"]Formula
[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH]C2
[/TH]
[TD="align: left"]{=INDEX(J2:J13,MATCH(A2&"|"&B2,H2:H13&"|"&I2:I13,0))}
[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]
Entered with Ctrl+Shift+Enter. If entered correctly, Excel will surround with curly braces {}.
Note: Do not try and enter the {} manually yourself[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]



You have a list of your machines in E, your materials in F, and then a combined list with costs in H:J. Then in A2 you can put a drop-down pointing to E2:E4, in B2 you have a drop-down pointing to F2:F5, then you can put the formula in C2 to look up the cost.

This should give you some ideas.

Thanks Eric....this is what I'm looking for. I'll give it a try!!
 
Upvote 0

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