search/reference problem

Wasn't sure how to best describe it in the title. However, this is generally what I'm looking for...

I am going to start getting a list at work of some 200 names, give or take probably 50 or 100 each time. I'm going to need to assign each of these names to the squad they're in...which, manually, will take forever.

Is there any way to make Excel do something like this...

Have it check the name on the current sheet against an entire collumn of names on a different sheet. When it finds that name, have it return the squad number for that name which would be on the same line like 2 collumns over.

So...

Say I'm searching for John Smith. One page would have

Sheet 1
Name:......................Squad:
John Smith...............[here would be the function]



Another sheet would have

Sheet 2
Name:....................SSN.........Squad
random name..........###............2
random name..........###............1
John Smith.............###............3
random name..........###............5
random name..........###............1



So the function would check the cell next to it, which would be the name (John Smith). It would then search through the name collumn of Sheet 2 til lit found John Smith. It would then go to the Squad collumn for that same line, get the number, and return it to the Squad collumn on Sheet 1.

Is there a way to do this?

Hi Zyphlin,

Yes, you need to research VLOOKUP functions. If your table is in Sheet 2 from A1:C12 and your formula is in B2 of Sheet 1 with your name being in A2, then in B2

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Let me know if this works for you.

ChemistB