Lookup?

[luisi]

I have 2 spreadsheets

The first is a large table with thousands of invoice numbers in no
particular order that have been billed.

Weekly I get a second spreadsheet with a set of 50 or so invoice numbers
that appear somewhere on the first sheet (no particular order). These are
invoices that have been paid that week. This sheet also shows the date paid.

I need a formula to match the invoice numbers from the paid sheet to the
billed sheet and return the date paid in another column on that billed sheet

 

[M Kan]

It would probably look like this:

=VLOOKUP([invoice number],[sheet and column reference of your second
spreadsheet], [column ID of the paid date], FALSE)

You need the FALSE argument at the end, because you want an exact match to
your invoice number. You also need to make sure the numbering conventions on
both sheets are the same (e.g., no leading 0's or extra spaces)

 

[StumpedAgain]

VLOOKUP is what you're looking for. Just insert function VLOOKUP and it will
walk you through (as best as MS can) the steps you want. Remember though, if
you're going to copy this to multiple lines, you probably want an absolute
reference ($) in the second section of your VLOOKUP - the part where you put
in what you're pulling from. If you have any questions on VLOOKUP there's a
fair tutorial here:
http://www.timeatlas.com/mos/5_Minute_Tips/General/Learning_VLOOKUP_in_Excel/
Hope this helps!