VLookup help to return unique result for multiple

[BryGuy81]

Hi!

I am using a vlookup to return spend based on a concatenation of a date and a thing to make a unique value.

This concatenation is done on two data sets to create a value to look up off of. The issue that I am running into is that for one data set there is a subset of things, lets call them doodads, which cause the formula to return spend multiple times because there are multiple lines of the things. How can I set up to return only at the date/things level and not have repeats for when there are multiple doodads.

SEE ATTACHED DOC FOR DATA AND EXPECTED RESULT!

[JohnTopley]

In Q6

=IF($N6=$N5,"",VLOOKUP($N6,$G$6:$H$16,2,0))

Copy down

[BryGuy81]

Awesome!!

Can you help me a little bit about how this is working, specifically for rows 10-12.

I can see with =IF($N6=$N5, its looking at the concatenations to see if the current concatenation matches the previous one. How does this work with 3 variations like in rows 10-12 (ABC doodads)

Thanks,

[JohnTopley]

It doesn't look at the "DoodadS" as your example suggests this not necessary: you only change of change of the concatenation. ....

so have I missed something ????