Is it possible to perform large multi search in excel?

[nickmadd]

I have some product SKU's in Exel all in the same column and all unique. The problem is I have been building a product database for my website and only just noticed that the CSV file my distribution company supplied me with didn't include the product description. Since then the distribution company has added a description field to the feed, however the company has added products within this time so it's not as if I can copy and paste the description field into my product database as the wrong descriptions will match with the wrong products. Is there any way I can highlight all of my sku's and the rows they are in? This would work a treat as I could just select all of my SKU's in my product database and then find those products only in the CSV file the company has supplied me with.
Thanks

[Chris 53]

Vlookup would work wonders for you. Can you post a small sample from both files?

[nickmadd]

Here are the two files:
http://speedy.sh/mydyN/pricelist-des.csv
http://speedy.sh/fBEBk/importing-spi...escription.csv

Wouldn't let me attach them, pricelist-des.csv is the file I'm trying to take the description from, importing-spire-enta-description.csv also has other products in it that are not related to the pricelist-des.csv file but are ordered.

Thanks

[Chris 53]

Copy a small sample from each file into a workbook. Click the Go Advanced button and you should find an attachment button.

[nickmadd]

Okay here are the samples:

myproductdatabasesample.xlsCompanyCSVSample.xlsx

[Chris 53]

I've put both csv files into one xlsx file.

Sheet1(2) column A has the vlookup formula. Sheet1 had 2 description columns so I've selected the one in column L.

=VLOOKUP(F2,Sheet1!$A$1:$L$25,12,FALSE)

Do you know how Vlookup works? This one says look for the value in F2 in the left hand column of the range A1:L25 in sheet1, and return the value in column 12 of that range. The false means that the data does not have to be sorted.

Does this help?

Chris

[newdoverman]

Using VLOOKUP this can be done. Change the formula to match the location of the source data for the VLOOKUP.

[nickmadd]

Thanks that helps a lot however I have never used vlookup, I don't suppose you know of an in depth tutorial on the process you have just done? If not I will just have a play about with it and see what I can do.

[Chris 53]

The Help files are a start but after that google will point you to a raft of information.

[newdoverman]

VLOOKUP really isn't difficult. It has 4 arguments. =VLOOKUP(ARGUMENT 1, ARGUMENT 2, ARGUMENT 3, ARGUMENT 4)

ARGUMENT 1: LOOKUP VALUE This is the value that you are looking for, usually in the form of a cell reference.

ARGUMENT 2: TABLE ARRAY This is the range of cells that contains the value that you are looking for in a column of values and other columns of values that are related to the column of values. Example: if the range of cells is M1 to P30, the value in ARGUMENT 1 is in a column to the left of the value that you want to extract from the range of cells. Let's say that is column M. Columns N, O and P will have values related to the values in column M.

ARGUMENT 3: COLUMN INDEX NUMBER This is a numeric value that indicates from which column to return a value matching ARGUMENT 1. Column M in this case is column 1 column N is 2, column O is 3 and column P is 4.

ARGUMENT 4: RANGE LOOKUP This argument tells what kind of match is required by the formula. TRUE or FALSE or in numeric terms 1 or 0. If omitted, the match type is TRUE (approximate match). If the column where the match is to be found is sorted in order, the result can be an exact match if there is one or an approximate match if the exact match doesn't exist. The approximate match will be the next greater value.

FALSE or 0 is for an exact match and the sort order doesn't matter. Either a match is found or it isn't. When not found a #N/A error is the result.

[nickmadd]

After hours of trial and error I got it working thanks very much Chris!

[nickmadd]

VLOOKUP really isn't difficult. It has 4 arguments. =VLOOKUP(ARGUMENT 1, ARGUMENT 2, ARGUMENT 3, ARGUMENT 4)

ARGUMENT 1: LOOKUP VALUE This is the value that you are looking for, usually in the form of a cell reference.

ARGUMENT 2: TABLE ARRAY This is the range of cells that contains the value that you are looking for in a column of values and other columns of values that are related to the column of values. Example: if the range of cells is M1 to P30, the value in ARGUMENT 1 is in a column to the left of the value that you want to extract from the range of cells. Let's say that is column M. Columns N, O and P will have values related to the values in column M.

ARGUMENT 3: COLUMN INDEX NUMBER This is a numeric value that indicates from which column to return a value matching ARGUMENT 1. Column M in this case is column 1 column N is 2, column O is 3 and column P is 4.

ARGUMENT 4: RANGE LOOKUP This argument tells what kind of match is required by the formula. TRUE or FALSE or in numeric terms 1 or 0. If omitted, the match type is TRUE (approximate match). If the column where the match is to be found is sorted in order, the result can be an exact match if there is one or an approximate match if the exact match doesn't exist. The approximate match will be the next greater value.

FALSE or 0 is for an exact match and the sort order doesn't matter. Either a match is found or it isn't. When not found a #N/A error is the result.

Also thanks for your input it has helped me learn quite a lot about VLOOKUP

[newdoverman]

Thanks for the feedback.