I want to create a pulldown list to select various material based on
size (ie: 1/2" x 1", 5/8" x 1", 3/4" x 1", etc...).  I then want to
use VLOOKUP to find the associated price.

The problem is that my list of material is not in alphabetical order
as i want list them based on size therefore, 5/8" before 3/4" or 1"
but Excel put the 1" first, followed by 1/2", 3/4", and then 5/8".

I thought about adding a column in my list of material to number the
items in the order i want them listed.  But how do i tell VLOOKUP to
look at the "position" returned in my pulldown selection instead of
the actually "text" selected.

In other words, if i select 3/4" x 1" in my pulldown list, and say for
example, that selection is the 9th item in my pulldown, i don't want
VLOOKUP to look for 3/4" x 1" in my list price but instead, I want
VLOOKUP to look for the 9th item on my price list.

Is a Data Validation list capable of returning the position # of the
item selected in the list?  If so, what is the function to do so?

TIA