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Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

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    Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    I am very new to excel and very tired of updating 3 worksheets when I know it can be done automatically...I just need some expert help

    I have 3 worksheets in one workbook that I update everyday. One worksheet column A is a parking sticker number and then it has Year, Make, Model, Name, Phone etc. The next worksheet is the same information but in different columns and so is the third.

    I looked up merging worksheets together on google and got multiple answers. One was consolidate, (I tried that and it didn't come out right)one was vlookup, (I watched an excel video and that one didn't sound right), so I am very confused.
    Can someone please guide me. I tried to look up the answer on here, but I must know the question and since I am not sure, I am posting this. I'm sorry that this is such a simple thing and I can't figure it out, but please help?
    Thank you so much for your time!

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    maybe if you uploaded a sample workbook, showing what you have, what you want to do, and explain how you did it? (exclude any sensitive info)
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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    hey laura,

    Need some more info. If you can attach a sample data sheet then it would be much easier to help.
    Just wanted to know that Do all three sheets have different data and you want to merge it together under one sheet?

    Please elaborate your ques. a bit

    Thanks
    Dinesh

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    Okay, I'm sorry.. I don't even know if I need all the worksheets but I started it this way, 3 years ago and have just gone with it. I really need the license plate one, because we look up cars with that info all the time, but I need the other information too. The problem is that sometimes, I either have a license plate or I have a parking sticker, but I don't have both, so that's why I started this. Because of that, I think?? I would like to consolidate but I'm worried because what if I don't have the license plate info? And, I don't want to lose any of the data so I don't want to go through and do it by hand. I'm sorry, I feel like an excel dummy
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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    And of course, I have like 1000 rows of this info, this is just a small portion. I thought I would add that so you can see why I don't want to do it by hand

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    thanks for the file.

    looking at the headings on all 3 sheets, most seem pretty much the same.
    take a look at the attached, sheet4 and tell me if I have the "synch" correct?
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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    yes, it looks like it

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    where would permit # fit?
    is plate # the same as LIC #?

    see if you can line them up for me, and we will see if we can sort this out for you into 1 worksheet

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    Okay, I changed a few things so maybe it makes more sense?
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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    shouldnt A2 line up with row 3 and A9 line up with row 2?

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    I'm sorry, I don't understand the question? I need lic plate in the first column in sort a-z format and the rest can be anyway as long as everything is together and I only have to enter it once
    Last edited by laurabach; 05-04-2013 at 01:44 AM.

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    if you look at the 2nd file you uploaded,

    A2 = permit#...you have permit # in B3:C3
    and in A9 you have lic plate #...you have lic plate # in B2:C2

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    Okay, I think?? I understand what you are saying. Please look at what I did and let me know if that is what you wanted me to do? I guess what I need is all the sheets just consolidated into one, but I don't know what I'm doing. If you could help me with that, that would be perfect. I just don't need 3 worksheets, but the lic plate number has to be sorted and in the first column. If you could give me a step by step to consolidate the information, that would be awesome!
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    Last edited by laurabach; 05-04-2013 at 02:19 AM.

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    yes, perfect

    Looking at your data, it is very fragmented I could fairly easily fix what you uploaded, but you have 100 rows +.

    let me think on this for a bit

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    what does "fragmented" mean? I'm sorry that I don't know much about excel, but do you mean that I have empty cells? I would love it if I could do some sort of conditional formatting on the empty cells, meaning that if blank, turn red or something like that???

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    the changing color is easy, we can use conditional formatting for that

    Im trying to find a field (column) that we can use to start the consolidation with. would permit # be a good start?

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    Lic Plate # would be a good place to start because I need it in column A so that I can sort from a-z. Would that work?

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    yup that can work

    This is going to be a process that you will need to go through, because I cant just do all of it with your sample file. You may have a bunch of info duplicated from 1 sheet to another, too

    The way Im thinking is that we can put a bunch of vlookups together to pull in data that has Lic Plate # info, and do this for each sheet
    Then for data that does not have Lic Plate, we will just copy the rest over, below the vlookup'd info
    Then see if there is anything left behind.
    Finally sort the new table and look for any duplicates - delete those if ALL the data matches

    edit: just looking at those 3 sheets - none of thenm have any Lic Plate data?

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    I didn't know if that would be considered as confidential data, so I erased it. What should I do?

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    hmm good point. So you have lic plate data for all entires on all sheets?

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    No, I don't have them all, but I do have most. Sometimes I know the lic plate and not the parking sticker and vice versa, but I need to know all of the lic plate data which is why I would like it to show red if it is blank

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    ok, but there is lic plate data on all sheets - even if it is not complete on all sheets?

    Would there be duplicate lic plate #'s on a sheet...and/or across all sheets?

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    there shouldn't be duplicates on the same sheet, but there will be duplicates on the three sheets

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    OK thats what I figured

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    is LIC # the same as PLATE #?

    likewise name and resident name?
    Last edited by FDibbins; 05-04-2013 at 07:03 PM.

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    yes and sticker is the same as permit...I'm sorry

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    OK im working on it for you

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    If you want to apply conditional formatting to the LIC # column to highlight cells with no data...

    1. highlight A2:A1000
    2. on the home tab, styles, select CF
    3. select new rule, select "format only cells that contain"
    4. in the drop-down, select BLANKS

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    Re: Not sure if I need to consolidate or vlookup or another formula?

    Happy to help and thanks for the feedback

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