UKC

I am trying to create a costing sheet/BOM in excel whereby i choose parts from a dropdown list, when the part is chosen it then puts description in next column and price in column after that. I've managed to do it using the vlookup function but am i right in saying the parts on the list have to be arranged in alphabetical order.

In reply to Andy Hudson:

I'm told by the experts that a combination of INDEX and MATCH is better than VLOOKUP.

It's certainly more flexible and not really any harder to use so it's probably worth looking up a tutorial to learn. Not sure about VLOOKUP but INDEX/MATCH certainly doesn't require the list to be in alphabetical order.

In reply to Andy Hudson:

No, make sure you select exact match in your lookup formula so that the correct description is returned. This is done by putting a 0 or false in the final part of the vlookup formula.

=vlookup(cell value to match, table array,column value to return,FALSE)

In reply to Andy Hudson:

You an arrange things in alphabetical order with the sort, but I dont think you need to for vlookup.

In reply to alx:
Thanks, i was just missing the FALSE part of the formula