Populate fields automatically

[erisaaka]

If I knew excel vocab better I would be able to describe this much easier. I will do my best.

I have a list of transactions from particular vendors. We are integrating the transactions over into GP dynamics. The database that these transactions come from have the vendors name but they are very long. In GP dynamics the vendor ID is short.

In order to get the integration to work properly I need the vendor ID as an additional field in the excel file. It would be a pain to have to look up the vendor IDs every single time we have to upload these transactions and add them to the excel file.

I am wondering if there is a formula I can write that will automatically populate the vendor ID in one field based on the vendor name that is in another field. Example, if A1=Wal-Mart, B1=WALMA01. A column being the vendor field and B column being the vendor ID. I would hope to drag this formula down through the entire vendor ID column and have it automatically populate. I know the first time it will take a lot of manual entry but once it is done it will be done!

Thank you! Please let me know where I need to clarify.

[JBeaucaire]

As long as you have a reference sheet somewhere that lists these combinations, it's an easy VLOOKUP formula.

In a sheet called VENDORS, put your long vendor names in column A and the codes you want to retrieve in column B.

Then back on your data sheet, this formula in A1: =VLOOKUP(A1, Vendors!A:B, 2, 0)

[erisaaka]

Great! That was very easy. Thank you.

I understand every part of the formula except for the range_lookup. What does the 0 mean here?

[JBeaucaire]

While typing in the formula bar, click on the Fx icon to the left of that formula bar and it will open up a "help" window that helps you understand the function you're using.

Or press F1 at anytime and search on VLOOKUP to read Excel's very good tutorial on any function.

range_lookup Optional. A logical value that specifies whether you want VLOOKUP to find an exact match or an approximate match:
If range_lookup is either TRUE or is omitted, an exact or approximate match is returned. If an exact match is not found, the next largest value that is less than lookup_value is returned.

Important If range_lookup is either TRUE or is omitted, the values in the first column of table_array must be placed in ascending sort order; otherwise, VLOOKUP might not return the correct value.

If range_lookup is FALSE, the values in the first column of table_array do not need to be sorted.

If the range_lookup argument is FALSE, VLOOKUP will find only an exact match. If there are two or more values in the first column of table_array that match the lookup_value, the first value found is used. If an exact match is not found, the error value #N/A is returned.

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