lookup on text string

[alanconde]

Jeez, what a terribly undescriptive subject! sorry

Lookup range has values "<City>, <State>":

• Chicago, IL
• NYC, NY
• LA, CA
• Denver, CO

Lookup value is "<City>":

• Chicago
• Denver
• LA
• NYC

Can anyone suggest a formula that will return the value from the first list given items from the second list as input?
I was thinking of some sort of array forumla using FIND, but I haven't had any luck.
(Actual data is several thousand records in length for both lookup values and reference)