Using Excel Lookup Function and Handling Case Where No Matches Exist

Posted by Dave on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Dave
Published on 2010-04-20T11:01:00Z Indexed on 2010/04/20 11:03 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 174

Filed under:

excel

|

data-validation

I'm using Excel to enter data for an event where people register. A high percentage of the registrants will have registered for previous events, so we can their name and ID number.

I'm trying to use the LOOKUP function in Excel to lookup the name and then populate the ID field with their ID number.

This works well unless the value that is looked up is a new user that we don't already have details for.

However, if the LOOKUP function can not find an exact match, it chooses the largest value in the lookup_range that is less than or equal to the value. This causes a problem since you can't tell if the match was exact (and the data is correct) or not exact and the match is incorrect.

How do I catch non-matches and handle separately?

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about excel

Excel error "This workbook contains Excel 4.0 macros or Excel 5.0 modules"

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have a workbook that was protected via the Protect Workbook feature. It was sent to someone else to modify. When they sent it back, it was unprotected and when I try to reprotect it I get this error, "This workbook contains Excel 4.0 macros or Excel 5.0 modules. If you would like to… >>> More
Open excel 2007 excel files and save as 97-2003 formats in VBA

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have a weird situation where I have a set of excel files, all having the extension .xls., in a directory where I can open all of them just fine in Excel 2007. The odd thing is that I cannot open them in Excel 2003, on the same machine, without opening the file first in 2007 and going and saving… >>> More
Creating Excel or Excel compatible Spreadsheets on the server side in C#

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'd like to make server-side excel compatible spreadsheets that maybe use OpenXML or a structured data format. I've used Office Interop before to generate Excel spreadsheets, but those apps run on a PC that has office installed. For this web project I'm building, the server doesn't have office installed… >>> More
vba access values from excel workbook from another excel workbook

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Any ideas why this code will not work? Workbooks.Open Filename:="C:\a.xls" Workbooks("a.xls").Activate Worksheets("b").Select Dim OutputArray(10, 10) OutputArray(1, 1) = Workbooks("c.xls").Worksheets("worksheet_otherthan_default").Select.Range(A1).Value I'm trying to run a macro in one file (unnamed… >>> More
Excel workbook event order and usage when closing Excel

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Given the following workbook events: BeforeClose BeforeSave Please tell me: - The firing order in the case of multiple workbooks alreay opened (wb1, wb2 and wb3 are opened in this order) and the user closes Excel. You can assume all 3 needs saving. - What happen if user cancels one of the saving… >>> More

Related posts about data-validation

How do I make a Data Validation drop-down exclude blanks?

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Related: How can I use non-adjacent cells on another sheet for a Data Validation drop-down, and only show non-blank values? For now, I've worked around the above problem by re-arranging my sheet so all the Data Validation Source cells are in one range. I'm leaving the above question open though… >>> More
Data validation: fail fast, fail early vs. complete validation

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Regarding data validation, I've heard that the options are to "fail fast, fail early" or "complete validation". The first approach fails on the very first validation error, whereas the second one builds up a list of failures and presents it. I'm wondering about this in the context of both server-side… >>> More
[WPF C#]Get UserControl or VisualTree in DataValidation of TextBlock

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hy, I have a validator set on the text property of a textblock. For a correct validation I would need the parent usercontrol of the textblock, but the only things I have in the validator are the value object (a string) and the culture (doesn't help either). Does anyone know a way to get certain… >>> More
data validation custom error

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
if i put letter into number field i get error The field 'field name' must be a number how can i change the text of error? >>> More
WPF DataValidation on a DataTemplate object in an ItemsControl

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have two datatemplates, both very similar... here is one of them: <DataTemplate x:Key="HeadingTemplate"> <Grid x:Name="mainHeadingGrid" Margin="5,5,30,0" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"> <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" /> … >>> More