Suppose I have 2 columns of data. Column 1 holds a set of values and column 2 holds the probability of any one of these values occuring. So the data would look like:
Column 1................Column 2
-1,256.......................0.02
-567..........................0.04
345...........................0.10
1,234........................0.23
3,234........................0.39
Etc...
What I need are two sets of formulas. The first set would take a user-specifed value and find the closest value in column 1 that is greater than or equal to the value entered by the user, and then return the looked up value and and the corresponding probability from column 2.
The second set of formulas would take the same user-specifed value and find the closest value in column 2 that is less than or equal to the value entered by the user, and then return the looked up value and the corresponding probability from column 2.
E.g. in the above data table, tell the spreadsheet to look up a value of 1,500. The closest existing value that is greater than or equal to 1,500 is 3,234 and the corresponding probabiltiy is 0.39 so return these values. The closest existing value that is less than or equal to 1,500 is 1,234 and the corresponding probability is 0.23 so return these values.
I think I could use the VLOOKUP function for the second set of formulas but it doesn't work when trying to look up the greater than or equal to value, just the less than or equal to value.
Also, any formulas would have to be able to work with negative numbers in column 1 (in the spreadsheet the range can be any set of real numbers).
Many thanks
-Rob
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