Populating a column by referencing another workbook

[jay]

Hi, I'm trying to populate a column of names (column B) for a column of phone
numbers (column A). I know there's some way to link the phone numbers to a
separate workbook that is a large index of names and phone numbers such that
the cells in column B will scan the index and return the correct name for the
phone number. Can someone please help? Is this a vlookup function, an
if-then statement, a macro? I really have no idea how to set this up and I
would appreciate any assistance. Thank you, jay.

 

[Gord Dibben]

Sounds like VLOOKUP will do the trick.

Both workbooks have to be open.

See Debra Dalgleish's site for help on VLOOKUP and a sample workbook.

http://www.contextures.on.ca/xlFunctions02.html


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[sheryarkhan]

Hi!
You can use index/match function. Suppoe your orignal data in file1.

in b1:

=INDEX([file1.xlsx]Sheet1!$B$1:$B$100,MATCH(A1,[file1.xlsx]Sheet1!$A$1:$A$100,0))

Where in file1 "b1:b100" hold names for phone numbers. May be there will be
a better solution

 

[jay]

Thank you very much Gord and Shery!

Hi!
You can use index/match function. Suppoe your orignal data in file1.

in b1:

=INDEX([file1.xlsx]Sheet1!$B$1:$B$100,MATCH(A1,[file1.xlsx]Sheet1!$A$1:$A$100,0))

Where in file1 "b1:b100" hold names for phone numbers. May be there will be
a better solution

Hi, I'm trying to populate a column of names (column B) for a column of phone
numbers (column A). I know there's some way to link the phone numbers to a
separate workbook that is a large index of names and phone numbers such that
the cells in column B will scan the index and return the correct name for the
phone number. Can someone please help? Is this a vlookup function, an
if-then statement, a macro? I really have no idea how to set this up and I
would appreciate any assistance. Thank you, jay.