Looking up the most recent date something was used from a list with muliple events

Good morning,

I have a two column list of Dates(A) and items used (B). Example is below. I want to look down the list of items and return the most recent date it was used.

The second twist is that the list of items can contain multiple items in each cell. I can change the table to get around this but would be ideal if I could leave it as is. The list is currently sorted Date, Oldest date first.



10/2 Hammer
10/3 Hammer, Screwdriver
10/4 Screwdriver
10/5 Wrench, Hammer.


I would like to have a master list of items and be able to see the most recent date used.

Hammer 10/5
Screwdriver 10/4
Wrench 10/5

Any suggestions?

Thank you for your help.

Todd

Yes, they are. Like I said, I am able to change that so each gets it own cell in the same column, if needed.

-TK

Awesome. It looks like it does. I have to spend some time making sure I understand it all but Thank You.

This will save a ton of time!!

Cheers.
Todd

This formula is still a bit confusing. Can you help clarify?

LOOKUP(2^20,(SEARCH("*"&B5&"*",Data!E:E)),Data!A:A))

The only thing I can't get is why you are using the search function. Search looks for a sting in a sting and returns a number. Are we saying "find this string *B5*, in column E and return a number"? If that is the case, how does lookup us a number for the lookup_vector?

The formula works great, I am just not understanding why.

Thank you for your effort.

Cheers,
Todd

Hi

Try: LOOKUP


It is Important that the lookup vector is in ascending order.

The search is creating a internal array for the lookup vector EG: 1; 1; #Value;1. And the lookup value 2^20 (1048576) is looking in the lookup vector and returns the last instant of 1, which in returns the result from the result vector. I hope this is clear (Probably clear as mud!).