[salo]

Hope I can explain this properly. I have an excel sheet with 20 sets of information. In one column I have names (up to 300 for each of the 20 sets) that should actually be a different identifier. I have another excel sheet with all possible names (approx 10,000) in one column and the correct identifier in another column.

Is there an easy/quick way to change the names in the 1st excel sheet rather than using find/replace?

[platelet]

Okay if I’m reading your post right you have a table in sheet 2 which provides the translation you want something like

Bill | William
Billy | William
Will | William
Bob | Robert
Robbie | Robert

In sheet one you have a column which contains Bill, Billy etc and you’d like to see William in each case?

If so then a VLOOKUP will do the job. So if you have Bill in A1, insert a column B and put this next to it

=VLOOKUP(A1,Sheet2!A1:B5,2,FALSE)

Which is a vertical lookup of the value in A1 in the first column of the table on sheet2 that’s in A1 to B5. The FALSE denotes it needs to be an exact match

You will now have on your first sheet: Bill | William and you can fill the formula down to translate them all

[salo]

Thanks - that's exactly what I need. I'll be finished it in no time!

[Sideburns57]

Can I please ask a random Excel question (cheekily using someone else's thread!).

Seriously lacking in knowledge (in most things!): how does one automatically do numbering in sequence (1 to 100 for example) for rows without manually typing in the figures. Many thanks.

[psionic]

Originally Posted by Sideburns57

Can I please ask a random Excel question (cheekily using someone else's thread!).

Seriously lacking in knowledge (in most things!): how does one automatically do numbering in sequence (1 to 100 for example) for rows without manually typing in the figures. Many thanks.

One way of doing it is:

• Enter 1 in the 1st row
• Enter 2 in the 2nd row
• Select both the above cells
• Notice at the bottom right of the selection there's a little blob called a fill handle. Drag it downwards and subsequent cells will fill in the correct sequence.

[Sideburns57]

Nope, sorry - no blob seen!

[psionic]

Originally Posted by Sideburns57

Nope, sorry - no blob seen!

See http://spreadsheets.about.com/od/exc...torial-Hub.htm

[Sideburns57]

Thanks. I will have a go!

[Sideburns57]

"One small step for man.........."

Thanks - it works, even I managed to do it!