Find a match and return a value

[htown]

This one is a bit above my head, I tried studying the INDEX and MATCH function but to no avail. What I am needing to do is that I have 2 simlar spreadsheets but one has a bit more info in it so I am calling this my MASTER file. The other has close to the same amount of members in it but I only need one column of info which is that members start date. So what I need to do is in the MASTER file I have added a column called "Start Date". So I need to look in that row for that persones email address, then go find it in the other file, and return that persons start date number to that cell.

Hope this makes sense. I have no idea how to write this formula. I tried something like this:
=INDEX('[Membership export from Drupal version.xlsx]Membership export from Drupal v'!$I:$I,MATCH(B2,B:B,0))

But it did not work.

Many thanks,
Houston

[htown]

OK, I tried using vlookup.

=VLOOKUP(B2,'[Membership export from Drupal version.xlsx]Membership export from Drupal v'!$H$2:$I$407,2,FALSE)

It grabs the correct field but since it is a date it does not display correctly which I do not understand. IF I switch the field format in both sheets to GENERAL than
the correct number comes across. But as soon as I turn on the CELL FORMAT to DATE they no longer match. ???? Super confused as to why this is happening.

Many thanks,
Houston

[Tony Valko]

If you get a 5 digit number like 42570 then format that as Date.

42570 is the number that represents the date July 19 2016.

In Excel dates are really just numbers formatted to look like dates. These numbers are commonly referred to as the date serial number. The date serial number is the count of days starting from a base date. In Windows Excel the default base date is January 1, 1900. So, January 1, 1900 is date serial number 1.

Jan 1 1900 = date serial number 1
Jan 2 1900 = date serial number 2
Jan 3 1900 = date serial number 3
Jan 4 1900 = date serial number 4
Jan 5 1900 = date serial number 5
etc
etc
Jan 1 1975 = date serial number 27395
Jan 1 2000 = date serial number 36526
Jan 1 2016 = date serial number 42370

You can see the date serial number by entering some date in a cell and then changing that cells format to General or Number.

[htown]

Yes, I get that but that is not the problem. What I am saying is that even though
the number that represents the date is the exact same number in both sheets, they show 2 different dates. Why?

[Tony Valko]

I'd have to see it to try to figure it out.

Can you post a SMALL sample file where this occurs?

[FDibbins]

Does teh data in both files start inteh same row?