converting long lists of prices

[trevflan]

I work for a company that issues its customers with prices usin
excel... we have thousands of prices.. is there any way of covertin
all the indvidual prices and descriptions into a simple program or fil
so that customers can do a very quick search for a price!! The progra
or file needs to be small and easy for end user.

Thanking you in advance

Trevor
Irelan

 

[David McRitchie]

In order to solve a problem you or to ask for help you probably
need to try to solve the problem yourself. How far did you get
what problems did you have. You must have some idea of
what you want to happen.

How many sheets do you have, how much data on the sheets.
What kind of input would you have to use to find something.
Does the number of criteria for a search change per worksheet.

Take a look at VLOOKUP for a table search
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/vlookup.htm

Would a Table of Contents get you where you want to go
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/buildtoc.htm
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/buildtoc2.htm

 

[CLR]

I have a database that is currently about 1600 rows long, and I search it
quite efficiently with the AutoFilter. Try Data > Filter >
AutoFilter,.........it may do what you want without having to use another
program.

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

 

[Gord Dibben]

Trev

I guess there are a few ways to do this.

1. Send them the Excel file and teach them to use AutoFilter.

2. You filter what they ask for and send them the results.

Without more detail on layout of your file and your customers' needs it would
be difficult to tailor a specific solution.

Gord Dibben Excel MVP

 

[trevflan]

Thanks for all your help...

Now im a basic and i mean basic excel user....

The spread sheet would consist of one sheet only with two column
Code/description and Price. I would love to be able to give m
customers a simple file that they can install and have on ther
desktop. I would obviously feed the data into the program in H/Q an
give file out to our clients.
I can imagine only one field for the customer to enter a cod
or description and the program would show the price. Simple as i
sounds is it possible.

Trevor Flanagan

Thanks once again

 

[CLR]

With your data in columns A and B, you could type the Code/description you
want to look up in C1 and put this formula in D1..........

=VLOOKUP(C1,A:B,2,FALSE)

the spelling must be the same as is on the list, and it will only look up
one instance of the Code/description and Price.........but if you only have
each item entered once, that should be no problem

hth
Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3