Compare and Sort a Column in Excel

I am a firefighter and when we have large wildfires in California we order a lot of overhead positions to assist at the fire. These overhead position fall into 1 of 6 categories.

As I import the list of outstanding overhead requests into Excel, is there I way I can assign a value to each position? 1 through 6? I can then sort the entire list by number and hand a list of all "1's" to one person and "2's" to another person etc.

I'd like to assign a value to each position COMPARED to a master list. On the master list I will tell Excel that a "Helicopter Coordinator" = 1 for example.

Here's an example of some miscellaneous overhead positions:

O-42 OPERATIONS BRANCH DIRECTOR (OPBD)

O-44 TECHNICAL SPECIALIST - CREWS (CALIFORNIA ONLY)

O-45 INCINET STATUS/CHECK-IN RECORDER (CALIFORNIA ONLY)

O-47 OPERATIONS BRANCH DIRECTOR (OPBD)

O-48 FIRE FIGHTER TYPE 2 (FFT2)

O-50 HELICOPTER COORDINATOR (HLCO)

O-52 MEDICAL UNIT LEADER (MEDL)

Essentially I want to say that IF B2 equals anything on list 1 THEN put a 1 in the box. IF B2 equals anything on list 2 THEN put a 2 in the box, etc...

Thanks!!

You could do this with a VLOOKUP rather than a complicated IF.

Create your table of positions in one column and the next column have your category number for that position.

Then use VLOOKUP to first lookup the position name and then return the value in the second column.

If you attach a sample workbook it would be easier.

Go Advanced -> Manage Attachments -> Upload

Awesome. Thanks. Attached.

I've mocked up a sample for you using VLOOKUP.

I think I've got it... watched a tutorial on VLOOKUP...

Thanks!!