Need to Extract Data from Spreadsheet

[Guest]

I use Windows XP and Excel 2003.
I have two rougly similar spreadsheets except one has more data fields than
the other. Here's what I need to do. I need to look up an account number in
spreadsheet 1, find the $ balance for that account number, then go to the
spreadsheet 2, see if the account number from the first spreadsheet is
populated or exists in spreadsheet number 2, and if so, populate the $
balance field in spreadsheet 2 from corresponding to teh same account number
in spreadsheet 1. Does that make sense? Said another way, I'm looking for
an account balance in spreadsheet 1, finding the corresponding account number
in spreadsheet 2, populating an empty $ account balance in spreadsheet 2 from
the account balance that exists in spreadsheet 1.
I think this might involve a pivot table (?), but I have zero idea how to
use this tool. I've looked in two Excel reference books and I'm not getting
the hang of how to do this for my need.
I'd appreciate your assistance and guidance. Thank you very much!

 

[Guest]

I'd recommend using VLOOKUP.

Assume column B of Sheet1 has the account balances, column A of sheet 1 has
the account numbers, and Sheet2 is constructed similarly.

=VLOOKUP(A1,Sheet1!$A$1:$B$10,2,FALSE) would find the account number
referenced in A1 of Sheet2, find the corresponding Account Number in Sheet1
and return its associated balance. Given the structure of the worksheets
described above, this VLOOKUP formula would be entered in B1

Dave