Hi all

{=INDEX(files!$A:$A,MATCH(1,COUNTIF($D40,"*"&files!$A:$A&"*"),0))}

I am using the formula above to extract a file number from a string of data where I never know where the file number will be (if it is there at all)

It works to a point however, due to the wildcards in the formula if my files list has W250/4 followed by W250/459 it will return W250/4 when the exact match is W250/459.

I think reversing the sort order of the files data Z-A rather than A-Z may fix this, but this would mean re-sorting data each time.

I was going to record a macro to resort on opening file, but macros are wiped from our servers overnight

If this is my only option then I will manually resort, but would love a way around this if possible!

Thanks all for any help - hope I have given enough details (new to this)

Jo