Help required identifying the first time data is mentioned in 2 columns

Hey guys,

I'm looking for some help in excel (2007).

I have 2 columns: Column A and Column B.

For the project I'm working on, both columns have already been coded accordingly such that they spit out either of the three words: "Miss" or "Buying" or "Selling."
As you read from left to right there are only 3 options in my results (one word per cell):

MISS MISS
BUYING MISS
MISS SELLING

I am only interested in the "buying" or "selling" terms. And so my question is: how can I achieve an output (in a new separate cell) - reading from left to right and then down to the next row - which term (between 'buying' and 'selling') appears first?

Just for further clarification, I've provided an example (one of hundreds of tables I'm trying to compute!) below. Here the answer will obviously be that "Selling" appears first.


1 Miss Miss
2 Miss Selling
3 Miss Miss
4 Buying Miss
5 Buying Miss
6 Miss Selling
7 Miss Selling
8 Buying Miss
9 Miss Selling
10 Miss Selling
11 Buying Miss
12 Miss Selling

Any help would be really appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Withdrawn by FR.

See if this does what you want. These are two array-entered formulas entered in C1 and filled across and C2 and filled across. They identify first occurrence row in each column and whether Sell / Buy.

If you aren’t familiar with array-entered formulas array enter means the formula must be committed from edit mode by simultaneously pressing and holding down Ctrl and Shift while hitting Enter.

Row\Col	A	B	C	D
1	Miss	Miss	4	5
2	Miss	Miss	Selling	Buying
3	Miss	Miss
4	Selling	Miss	In C1 : =MIN(MATCH("Selling",A$1:A$21,0),MATCH("Buying",A$1:A$21,0))
5	Miss	Buying	In C2 : =INDEX(A$1:A$21,MIN(MATCH("Selling",A$1:A$21,0),MATCH("Buying",A$1:A$21,0)))
6	Miss	Miss
7	Miss	Buying
8	Miss	Miss
9	Miss	Miss
10	Buying	Miss
11	Miss	Miss
12	Miss	Miss
13	Miss	Miss
14	Buying	Selling
15	Miss	Selling
16	Buying	Miss
17	Miss	Selling
18	Miss	Miss
19	Miss	Miss
20	Miss	Miss
21	Selling	Selling

Hi FlameRetired

>>
If you aren’t familiar with array-entered formulas array enter means the formula must be committed from edit mode by simultaneously pressing and holding down Ctrl and Shift while hitting Enter

I'm not sure i understand this step. I've inputted the formulas you've coded and changed the variables accordingly to corresponding numbers on the excel sheet but am only getting errors. Can you show it to me on the excel file i just uploaded?

On the file you just uploaded my formula only partially works.

My formula needs two columns to display output as in the grid I posted.

I am befuddled on how to handle all of this in one cell; not having any success. I am going to have to sleep on this one.

And yes, that formula will return errors.

This seems to work. Committed with Enter.

Formula:

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