How may I retrieve data from an Excel table based on a variable number of criteria?

Posted by Eshwar on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Eshwar
Published on 2012-10-15T09:33:48Z Indexed on 2012/10/15 9:40 UTC
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microsoft-excel

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excel-2010

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database

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pivot-table

I have the following salary data for example:

Country  State     2012  2013 -> 2027
=======  =====     ====  ====
China    Other     1000  1100
China    Shanghai  1310  1400
China    Tianjin   1450  1500
India    Orissa    1500  1600

So now in another Excel sheet I would want an answer to one of the following questions:

What is the salary in Shanghai for 2013? (Answer would be 1400)
What is the salary in Hubei province for 2012? (Since it is not listed, use "Other" - 1000)
What is the average salary in China for 2013? (Answer would be 1450)
What is the highest salary in China for 2012? (Answer is Tianjin)

So as in the above order of priority, I would like those numbers in another Excel sheet using some form of query. I considered PivotTables but I was wondering if there is another much better more efficient way of doing this?

I imagine SQL is suited for this but I am not clued up on that. Some Excel functionality is much rather preferred. Also suggestions on an appropriate format of data for such queries would be appreciated.

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