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How to refer to a column by value in first row instead of letter

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    How to refer to a column by value in first row instead of letter

    Hiya! Sometimes I set up a formula to get values from another sheet. For example:

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    But then, one day when pasting data into that sheet, I find that the columns have moved from their previous position. I think it would be better if, as a matter of best practice, instead of referring to a cell like "C2" I could locate the cell using the value of the first row which act as headers (it's not a table though). For example, the formula would refer to row two of whatever column has "Name" in the first row of that column.

    I googled around and think this might be a problem for INDEX and MATCH. Does that sound right?

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    Re: How to refer to a column by value in first row instead of letter

    If you had a block of cells where the top left cell is A1 and the bottom right is, e.g. Z50, and "Name is somewhere in row one then:
    Index('Data_Source'!A1:Z50,0,Match("Name",'Data_Source'!A1:Z1,0)
    will access all rows of the column where Name is found. You would need another MATCH() to replace 0, to get a specific row
    Ben Van Johnson

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    Re: How to refer to a column by value in first row instead of letter

    Brilliant! I was able to get it to work. Thanks for helping me level-up!

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