Format number as specific names?

[jpullen88]

Hi all,

I am working on a game in excel and am using numerical IDs to calculate when/where the characters, walls, enemies, etc. will populate. For example, 1 is a wall, 0 is a movable/open space, -1 is the player, -2 is an enemy, -3 a non-player character, -4, and so on. I was using a custom number format, [=-1]"Bob";[=-2]"Bat";"" but when I try to continue with [=-3] and so forth it gives me an error. I am inclined to think this is a limitation of the custom number formats but I hope someone has a solution or workaround.

[jpullen88]

I did just figure out a workaround by using conditional formats and assigning each one it's own custom formatting. Is there a better way?
conditional format if cell = -1 then number formatting = [-1]"Bob"
conditional format if cell = -2 then number formatting = [-2]"Bat"
conditional format if cell = -3 then number formatting = [-3]"NPC"
etc.

[MrShorty]

I would have probably built a lookup table and used a lookup function in an adjacent cell. If you are unfamiliar with Excel's lookup function, I would suggest you start with the VLOOKUP() function: https://support.office.com/en-us/art...8-93a18ad188a1

Some would depend on how critical it is to have the name appear in the same cell as the source number.