Lookup based on 1st non-blank cell

[Guest]

This should be easy but I'm having problems. Data looks like this.

Jan Feb Mar Apr.........Dec
John 10 5 6
Mary 2 4
Jill 5 1 5

I want to add a column that will find the first non-blank cell after the
name and then return the column header to that cell so it looks somethng like
this.

Name Start
John Feb
Mary Mar
Jill Jan

And if there is never a non-blank cell I'd like it to return N/A.

 

[T. Valko]

Try this:

=INDEX(B$1:M$1,MATCH(TRUE,INDEX(B2:M2<>"",1,),0))

Copy down as needed.

 

[Dave Peterson]

=IF(COUNTA($B2:$M2)=0,"N/A",INDEX($B$1:$M$1,MATCH(TRUE,$B2:$M2<>"",0)))

This is an array formula. Hit ctrl-shift-enter instead of enter. If you do it
correctly, excel will wrap curly brackets {} around your formula. (don't type
them yourself.)

or if you can live with #N/A:
=INDEX($B$1:$M$1,MATCH(TRUE,$B2:$M2<>"",0))

 

[Guest]

Assuming
Months on cells B1:M1
Name on cells A2:A4

Create defined names for all the names
eg. John is a defined name range from B2:M2
Mary is a defined name range from B3:M3 and so on...

If your criteria names
eg. Mary in cell A9
John in cell A10 and so on...

In cell B9: =INDEX($B$1:$M$1,MATCH(TRUE,INDIRECT(A9)<>"",0))
ctrl+shift+enter, not just enter
copy down