lookup latest entered match

[Guest]

I am trying to lookup the last entry of a name in an array. For example:

A B C
1 Fred 5 1/5/05
2 Barbey 4 1/6/06
3 Betty 10 2/12/06
4 Fred 7 5/15/06
5 Wilma 7 6/1/06
6 Dino 2 6/12/06

=vlookup("Fred",a1:c4,3,1) will only give me the first "Fred" date (1/5/05)
in column C. I am looking for a way to return the last entered "Fred".

 

[Guest]

One way (array entered, must confirm w/Control+Shift+Enter)

=INDEX(C1:C6,LARGE((A1:A6="fred")*ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&ROWS(A1:A6))),1))

If you have more than two matches and want to return one in between,
changing the 1 at the end (second argument of the LARGE function) to 2 will
return the second to last, etc. You can also change LARGE to SMALL (it works
the same way, but will start counting from the beginning of your data).

 

[Domenic]

Assuming that A2:C7 contains the data, try...

=LOOKUP(2,1/(A2:A7="Fred"),C2:C7)

Hope this helps!

 

[Guest]

It almost answers the question. I would like the date returned, and not
Fred... What I am searching for is the last time (date) that Fred was entered.
-G

 

[Domenic]

Have you tried the formula? The formula will find the last instance of
'Fred', which in your example would be Row 4, and return the
corresponding value in Column C, which in your example would be 5/15/06.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Domenic! It works.

-Smugga

Assuming that A2:C7 contains the data, try...

=LOOKUP(2,1/(A2:A7="Fred"),C2:C7)

Hope this helps!

 

[Guest]

Hi Domenic!
I've the same problem and your solution works very well but... I can't
understand it... :-(
What is: 1/(A2:A7="Fred") ? What does it mean?

Thank you very much...
paola

 

[Guest]

Hi Domenic!
I have the same problem and your solution works very well but... I can't
understand it... :-(

What is 1/(A2:A7="Fred")?
What does it means?

Thank you very much...
paola