selecting values from raw data

[cebu2b]

Imagine a data sheet containing values from A to AE. These values are text and alpha/numeric.

What I want to accomplish is to capture the values contained in column AE which are numeric by the top five costs. List those values into another worksheet along with four other values associated with those numeric values.

These "captured" categories would look something like this:

Costs - Customer - Department - Item - PN



These top five costs are contained within the rawdata under column AE, The customer data under N, Department under O, Item under P, and PN under R.

thanks for the help from a total newbee.....

[Pete_UK]

The LARGE( ) function will enable you to obtain the top five numeric
values in column AE of Sheet 1. In Sheet 2 you could enter this formula
in A2 (for example, with your headings in row 1):

=LARGE('Sheet 1'!AE$2:AE$20,1)

assuming that your data occupies rows 2 to 20 in Sheet 1. Copy the
formula down into A3, A4, A5, and A6, and then edit it to change the 1
at the end to 2, 3, 4, 5 etc, so that you have this:

A2: =LARGE('Sheet 1'!AE$2:AE$20,1)
A3: =LARGE('Sheet 1'!AE$2:AE$20,2)
A4: =LARGE('Sheet 1'!AE$2:AE$20,3)
A5: =LARGE('Sheet 1'!AE$2:AE$20,4)
A6: =LARGE('Sheet 1'!AE$2:AE$20,5)

although the cells will actually show the top 5 largest values from
column AE on Sheet 1.

You will then need to use the MATCH( ) function in conjunction with the
INDEX( ) function in order to return the other corresponding values in
adjacent cells, something like:

B2: =INDEX('Sheet 1'!N$2:N$20,MATCH($A2,'Sheet 1'!$AE$2:$AE$20,0))

This matches A2 in the summary sheet with its value in the raw data
sheet and returns the relative row where this occurs. The INDEX
function then uses this row number to retrieve the appropriate and
corresponding value from column N. This can be copied down into B3:B6.

The formula can also be copied across, but you will need to check that
the column reference in Sheet 1 is pointing to the correct columns O, P
and R, and then you can copy these down also.

Hope this helps.

Pete