Assigning certain data a value based on whole data

Originally Posted by jomili

Yep, pretty confusing, at least to me.

So, in "Row 1 Column A", the value is "Data1". I'm supposed to look for a match for "Data1" in column B? Or, are you talking about Row 2, the first row with data? If so, I look first for A55 in column B, and if I see it, then I put a 1 next to A55 if it exists in column B, then move on to A56, A58, etc?

"If you had matching values in row 1, print a "2" in the cell next to the matched B value." So replace the 1 we already put with a 2?

"If you did not have matching values in row 1, print a "1" in the cell next to the matched B value." So everything we didn't find we now put a 1 by, and all the previous 1's have been converted to 2's?

Finally, I guess we replace all of our 2's with 222? Not sure yet how 3 comes in.

Hmmm yep sorry. Let's see if I can clear some of this up.

First off - You are correct in that you would actually be starting on Row 2. I just added row 1 to give a quick description of each column.

Any output that this code will create will be put in Column C. Nothing else.

I'll go over the first few lines. I might not be doing it the most optimal way.

Scan all values in cell A2. Look for matching values in Column B. If a matching value is found, place (counter variable) 1 next to the match in Column C. If there are no matching value, move to next line and don't change the counting variable.
Next line.
Scan all values in cell A3. Look for matching values in Column B. Since matches are found, assign all matches the counting variable in Column C. So "A18", "A19", "A22" etc have "1" next to them in Column C. Now the next row that has matches for values, counting variable will go up 1. This repeats every time you find matches. If there are no matches, variable stays at the last number used.
Next line.
Scan all values in cell A4. Matches are found in Column B. ("A78", "A79"). Now we assign counting variable 2 next to the matches in Column C.
Next line. Do the same thing, if you have matches, assign counting variable 3, if there are no matches, go to the next line. You will repeat this until there are no values in the next row of column A. In this case that happens at row 45.

Once you finish scanning every line in the first step, theoretically all the values in column B will have a counting variable next to it in column C. If they don't have a counting variable next to it, then I want to have 222 placed next to it. I figured this could be accomplished by finding which values don't have a match by scanning all of Column B.

Column D in my sheet is what the actual end result is. I went and did that one manually as an "answer sheet."

Hope that clears it up even a little bit.