Look up from spreadsheet based on 6 criteria

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Rich D - 22 May 2008 21:40 GMT

Hi,

In Excel 2003, I have a page where my people will put in 6 criteria; Style,
Min Sq Footage, Max Sq Footage,# Bedrooms, # Baths, Garage stalls.

I need to search thru the plans data base to list the plan numbers that
match ( or ><) all 6 criteria. Can anyone please tell me how to do this?

Signature

Rich D
Armstrong Custom Homes
Redmond

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krcowen@aol.com - 22 May 2008 21:55 GMT

Rich

Add a column with a formula that concatenates your six criteria and
use that for you look up column.

Good luck.

Ken
Norfolk, Va

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> Armstrong Custom Homes
> Redmond

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Rich D - 22 May 2008 22:38 GMT

Ken,

You're assuming I know more than I do. Can you give me an example?

thanks

Signature

Rich D
Armstrong Custom Homes
Redmond

> Rich
>
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
> > Armstrong Custom Homes
> > Redmond

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Fred Smith - 22 May 2008 23:42 GMT

You're assuming we know as much as you do. What does the "plans data base"
look like? Is it in Excel? Are the six criteria all in one cell, or separate
cells? Does each criteria match exactly, or do you, for example, want to
match 2.5 baths to 2 baths?

Regards,
Fred.

> Ken,
>
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
>> > Armstrong Custom Homes
>> > Redmond

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Rich D - 22 May 2008 23:55 GMT

Fred,
The plans db is in Excel also. The columns are labelled the same and the
criteria needs to either match exactly in some cases or be <= or >+ in some
cases, depending on which column I'm comparing to (looking in). This would
be much simpler if I could just email you the file. thanks for any help.

Signature

Rich D
Armstrong Custom Homes
Redmond

> You're assuming we know as much as you do. What does the "plans data base"
> look like? Is it in Excel? Are the six criteria all in one cell, or separate
[quoted text clipped - 33 lines]
> >> > Armstrong Custom Homes
> >> > Redmond

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Fred Smith - 23 May 2008 03:51 GMT

Most of us don't mind helping, but we're certainly not looking for extra
work. Unfortunately there's become too much risk from accepting e-mails from
unknown sources due to viruses. So you likely won't get any takeup on that.

Searching on 6 criteria won't be that hard, especially if you are willing to
create a concatenated key. However, it's the "some cases <= or >=" that will
be the monkey wrench. You will have to define these cases very well before
you can get Excel to look them up properly.

I like Bernie's idea. Why have them enter the criteria at all? Why not just
look it up in the data base using the AutoFilter?

Regards,
Fred.

> Fred,
> The plans db is in Excel also. The columns are labelled the same and the
[quoted text clipped - 44 lines]
>> >> > Armstrong Custom Homes
>> >> > Redmond

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Rich D - 22 May 2008 23:56 GMT

Frd,

Also, yes, the criteria are in separate cells.

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Rich D
Armstrong Custom Homes
Redmond

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Bernie Deitrick - 23 May 2008 00:40 GMT

Rich,

Select all the cells in your database, then choose Data / Filter....
AutoFilter.

At the top of each column will appear a small dropdown. Use those dropdowns
to either
select a specific criteria (such as style) or select Custom and use the Less
than / Less than or equal to / Greater than/ etc. options to set the
limits. Excel will hide the rows where one or more values don't meet your
criteria.

If you want to have the values entered elsewhere, you would require a macro
to apply the filters. Much better is to just get into the habit of using
the dropdowns to directly select the criteria.

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> I need to search thru the plans data base to list the plan numbers that
> match ( or ><) all 6 criteria. Can anyone please tell me how to do this?

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Rich D - 23 May 2008 15:55 GMT

Bernie,

I use auto filter all the time...love it. I showed it to the people at the
home office and, while impressed, they said no way could our sales people do
that. It needs to be less complicated. So, I am trying to come up with a
screen where the only cells showing on the form are the 5 or 6 criteria.
Then using that input, I want to be able to find all the records in the other
spreadsheets that fit and list them by plan number. Make sense?

Signature

Rich D
Armstrong Custom Homes
Redmond

> Rich,
>
[quoted text clipped - 24 lines]
> > I need to search thru the plans data base to list the plan numbers that
> > match ( or ><) all 6 criteria. Can anyone please tell me how to do this?

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