Reading a defined range name from a cell for fomula input

**PK99** · 08-10-2009, 12:01 PM

I've got a worksheet with several tables, each of which I've assigned a defined name. At the top of my worksheet I have several cells containing lookup functions, and these are repeated for each defined table on the sheet.

Right now I'm creating all my lookup functions for a single table, copying the cells containing these functions, and editing the references to the defined names in the copies by hand, giving me a final product something like this:

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To get this result, I'd normally do all the formulas in Column A first, then copy these formulas to Columns B-D, but doing that gives me the result below:

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As you can see, I still have to go in to Columns B-D and manually correct the table reference names. So, my question is this: is it possible to enter the text values Table1, Table2, etc. in Row 1, and somehow have all my vlookup functions extract the name of the table to use from these cells? I know I can't just do something like having the formula in A3 =VLOOKUP(A$2,A$1,2) since that will make the formula think that the range A1 itself is where I want to do the lookup. Any ideas?

**DonkeyOte** · 08-10-2009, 12:26 PM

If you were to store the appropriate table name in one cell in each column (common row) you could use INDIRECT ... eg say A1 contained Table1, B1 Table2 etc then you can use INDIRECT such that:

A3:=VLOOKUP(A$2,INDIRECT(A$1),ROWS(A$2:A3))

and copy that across your entire matrix HOWEVER note that INDIRECT is a Volatile function and performance can be affected when used en masse - for more info on Volatility see the link in my sig to Charles Williams' site.

**PK99** · 08-10-2009, 12:33 PM

Thanks, INDIRECT() is just what I needed.

**DonkeyOte** · 08-10-2009, 12:38 PM

Yes note also use of ROWS to increment your column reference in the VLOOKUP as you copy the formula in vertical direction.

Don't underestimate the impact of Volatile functions on performance however...