auto-populate a duplicate Cell

Hey guys,

Sorry for the confusing question on this because i am a complete noob with XL.

Im currently looking to auto-populate cells (i have attached an XL example)

You will notice that on the left column i used the following formula -

=B4&"-"&COUNTIF($B$4:B4,B4)

However, what has been bugging me is that i want the BRAND column to auto-populate so Mary has all the Mars and Harry has his Crunchy filled.

Because of the COUNTIF formula only counts the amount, it doesnt equate for the single value and thus does not auto-populate and fill in the blank cells.

The reason why i use COUNTIF formula is that im taking data from another XL file to match the NAME and BRAND to fill out the matches.

Does anyone know a workaround for this at all? or a formula to fill in the blank cells relating to Mary.

Apologies if that was not clear.

Welcome to the forum.

There are instructions at the top of the page explaining how to attach your sample workbook.

Where is the brand data coming from? You have completely removed all formulae and I see no lookup table anywhere.

Please attach a more complete sample workbook.

The important formula is the lookup formula - you haven't told us what that is.

As I suspected, you are completely over-thinking it.

Here you go:

=VLOOKUP(C2,'Vlookup data'!B:C,2,FALSE)

Just read that and it makes pretty much no sense to me at all, but I'll have a look at your updated workbook.

No - don't get the logic AT ALL.

12432-3 and 12432-4 do NOT exist in the lookup data - how is Excel meant to determine that you therefore wish to reallocate J1 and J2???

Given your data, I cannot see a way of differentiating the J1/J2 situation nor the M56.

Based on Seat Number, Ali's formula gives the "expected" result i.e. for a given Seat Number the Reserve Number is the same.