Stumped bad, need help please!

[Kevin]

I need to determine if any of the following groups of cells match each other.
For instance, H8&H9 match H11&H12, or H14&H15 match H8&H9, or H11&H12 match
H14&h15, etc...these cells contain a name and text that I don't want repeated
in the same column. If so, an error appears. I'm using dropdowns for all the
cells if that matters. The following formula is used for one cell under
conditional formatting and is the closest I can come to a solution, but this
will take forever to input...all ideas appreciated.
=AND(OR(H8&H9=H11&H12,H8&H9=H14&H15,H8&H9=H17&H18,H8&H9=H20&H21,H8&H9=H23&H24,H8&H9=H26&H27,H8&H9=H29&H30))

 

[Fred Smith]

Well, you could lose the AND function. It's not doing anything.

Other than that, we need to know what else you want to do with the formula.
Even if it takes "forever" to input, once it's in, what's the problem?

Regards,
Fred.

 

[Kevin]

Fred, thanks for responding. The code I gave you is just a small sampling as
there are many rows to deal with. I'm not so worried about the time it takes
to input the code as the time it may take to debug a problem later. What I'm
doing is simply making a scheduling sheet for employees. The reason I need 2
conditions met is to see if someone is trying to schedule the same person at
the same time in a different room, and if so have an error pop up. I hope
that helps, thanks -Kevin

 

[Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)]

Try this formula...

=IF(SUMPRODUCT((H11:H998=H8)*(H12:H999=H9)*IF(MOD(ROW(H11:H998)-11,3)=0,1,""))=0,"No
duplicates","There is at least one duplicate")

It is good to the combination of cells H998 and H999. If you need more or
less, increase of decrease each by 3 at a time.

Rick

 

[Kevin]

Rick, thanks for the reply. This works fine, but when I copy the formula to
another column, (and change the column letter in the formula), the result is
the actual formula for some reason. It seems just looking at the formula with
the fx button changes something and it then stops working (just continues to
show formula). Does that make sense? Appreciate your help, -Kevin

 

[Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)]

Why are you changing the letter manually? There are two ways to copy the
formula to the next cell over without having to do that. The easiest way (to
me, at least) is to select the cell with the formula you want to copy, put
the cursor on the small black square in the lower right corner of the
selected cell (or selection if copy a range with more than one cell in
it)... when the cursor changes to a black "plus sign", left click and drag
to the next cell over. When you release the mouse button, the formula will
have been copied over with all (relative) cell addresses properly adjusted
for. The second method is to select the cell, click Edit/Copy from the menu
bar (or press Alt+C on the keyboard), select the cell you want to copy to
and click Edit/Paste (or press Alt+V on the keyboard) to finish copying the
formula to the new cell, then press the Esc key to deselect the original
cell's selection. And, once again, the (relative) cell addresses will be
properly adjusted. When I do either of these methods, the formula I posted
copies fine into the next cell.

Rick

 

[Kevin]

Rick, I did exactly what you mentioned, which does work. However, because my
"H" column has dropdown lists in it, your formula can't be in H so I copied
and pasted it from this forum to column "P" which works fine. Now I need to
replicate the formula for column "J" to do another schedule. If I copy (or
drag) as you mention, the column letter in the formula changes to a "P", in
which case the formula still works but it needs to reference column "J" now,
not "P". Sorry for the confusion, hope the additional info helps...

 

[Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)]

If I copy/paste the formula I posted into Column P and then drag it across
one cell, the column references change to I, not P. If that is not happening
for you, then I'm not sure why.

If you can get that to work correctly for you, the simplest way to get your
Column J references would be to drag the original formula across two
columns... the second one should have the J references. Delete the middle
formula (the one with the Column I references) and slide (click on any
border of the cell and drag) the cell to the correct location.

Rick

 

[Kevin]

HI Rick, I figured out what was wrong. The cell I put your formula in was a
merged cell, which it apparently didn't like I guess. It works fine in a
normal cell. The last question I have, if I may...how can I change the
message in your formula to fit my needs? If I try to change the words within
the quotes, the formula stops working and the result in the cell is the
formula itself. Any clue why this is happening? Thanks for patience, it's
appreciated.

 

[Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)]

I don't work with merged cells myself (they can be such a pain, as you have
found out). Anyway, unless you are still in a merged cell or something, I
don't see why you can't change the text in the message... it is straight
editing and should not affect the formula's functionality unless you
accidentally changed a function name or removed the leading equal sign.

Rick

 

[Kevin]

Rick, I'm embarrassed to say this last problem was simply the format of the
cells. They were formatted as text instead of general. This was definitely a
case of making something harder than it was. Thanks again for your patience
and helpful advice, it will go a long way. Sincerely, -Kevin