Checking for duplicate entries over multiple worksheets

[madbloke]

I have an excel file with multiple workbooks (month by month) which, amongst other things, contains reference number and name (columns C & D).

When entering these details, I'd like it to check across all previous entries (and previous months) for an exact match, and if it finds one, to pop up a messagebox asking if it's ok to enter a duplicate.

I was thinking along the lines of a VLOOKUP formula, but that would get overwritten when entering the data, so I'm stumped.

Any ideas?

[Kooster]

Consider moving this over to MS-Access and turn the workbooks into relational
tables. You can then set field level validation.

_ PJK _

"madbloke" wrote:

>
> I have an excel file with multiple workbooks (month by month) which,
> amongst other things, contains reference number and name (columns C &
> D).
>
> When entering these details, I'd like it to check across all previous
> entries (and previous months) for an exact match, and if it finds one,
> to pop up a messagebox asking if it's ok to enter a duplicate.
>
> I was thinking along the lines of a VLOOKUP formula, but that would get
> overwritten when entering the data, so I'm stumped.
>
> Any ideas?
>
>
> --
> madbloke
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> madbloke's Profile: http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=14422
> View this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=540711
>
>

[madbloke]

Not possible, unfortunately - I specifically need to do this in Excel.

Consider moving this over to MS-Access and turn the workbooks into relational
tables. You can then set field level validation.

_ PJK _

"madbloke" wrote:

>
> I have an excel file with multiple workbooks (month by month) which,
> amongst other things, contains reference number and name (columns C &
> D).
>
> When entering these details, I'd like it to check across all previous
> entries (and previous months) for an exact match, and if it finds one,
> to pop up a messagebox asking if it's ok to enter a duplicate.
>
> I was thinking along the lines of a VLOOKUP formula, but that would get
> overwritten when entering the data, so I'm stumped.
>
> Any ideas?
>
>
> --
> madbloke
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> madbloke's Profile: http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=14422
> View this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=540711
>
>