VLOOKUPS to Count Unique numbers

[Greg]

Can I use a VLOOKUP to return a count of unique values associated with
certain people? Ie. can I use a vlook up to lookup and then count of a number
of unique reference numbers associated with a person called 'John Smith' and
then put it in a particular cell?

 

[JLatham]

VLOOKUP() could be part of the solution, but I suspect that MATCH() is going
to be more appropriate.

In either case, the VLOOKUP() or MATCH() is going to stop looking at the
sheet at the first match it finds. So if same name appears on several rows,
you're not going to see any results except from the first one.

You could use MATCH() to return a value that you can equate to a row number.
Then set up up another formula [or use the MATCH() within another formula)
to count other things on the same row. More details on how your data is laid
out and what types of data you're trying to count would really help.