Combo Box to populate variable output range

[DougL]

I want to use a combox so someone can select an option which then causes a
separate range of cells to become populated. Here's an example:

Combo box has 2 choices "New York" and "California."
If someone selects New York, then in the output range B1:B3 they see
"Albany, Manhattan, Syracuse."
If they select California then the output range B1:B3 becomes "Sacramento,
San Diego, San Francisco."

I was able to do this by using hlookup in range B1:B3 based on a table I
made off to the side, but I figure there must be a more intuitive way.

Not to complicate this even more but what I'm ideally trying to do is for
the output range in B1:B3 to actually expand if for example I chose "Texas"
I'd want B1:B5 to be populated with "Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston,
Fort worth."

 

[Tyro]

You could for example do this. Assuming you have only 5 possible values.
Then put in B1 "New York", B2 "Albany", B3 "Manhattan, B4 "Syracuse", B5
="", B6 ="" Then put in C1 "California", C2 "Sacramento", C3 "San Diego", C4
"San Franciso", C5 ="", C6 ="". Then put in D1 "Texas", D2 "Austin", D3
"Dallas", D4 "San Antonio" D5 "Houston", D6 "Fort Worth". Make sure you put
the equal signs in as in: ="". Assuming you have linked the output of your
combo box to A1,and you want your resultant values to appear in H1:H5,
select those cells and in H1 enter the array formula
=OFFSET(B1,1,MATCH(A1,B11,0)-1,5,1) and after entering the formula press
Ctrl+Shift+Enter *not* just Enter. Then you can hide columns B, C and D. If
you change your possible values to 10, for example, just select cells
H1:H10, press F2 and change the 5 in the formula to 10 and press
Ctrl+Shift+Enter.

Tyro

 

[Tyro]

I should add that all empty cells in your values must contain ="" if they
are left blank, zeroes will show, not blanks.

Tyro

 

[DougL]

Thank You! This works great and it opens so many more possibilities in what
I'm creating!!!
Why do I need the "5" in my offset formula as the number of rows that I want
in my "found response." It also works with a 1 when I was trying to figure
this myself based on your suggested method.

 

[Tyro]

OFFSET returns a height and width, so "5,1" in the formula means 5 rows high
and 1 column wide. If you are returning a maximum of 5 cells spanning 5 rows
in 1 column, as in your example, you must have the 5 to tell OFFSET how many
rows (height) and the 1 to specify the width - 1 column to return. If your 5
entries were in one row spanning 5 columns the "5,1" in the formula would be
"1,5" - 1 row high, 5 columns wide. You have to specify the height as 5 in
this case. If you change the height to 1, then the first entry - e.g. Albany
in the case of New York will be returned 5 times - assuming the array
fromula spans 5 rows.

Tyro

 

[Tyro]

Here's another formula you can use Assuming you have your values entered as
in the OFFSET formula, select H1:H5 and in H1 put
=HLOOKUP(A1,B16,{2;3;4;5;6},0) and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter. This will
accomplish the same thing as the OFFSET formula.

Tyro