Vlookup when more than one possiblity

[samenvoegen van sheets]

Hello,

I'm using the VLOOKUP function to find some place's code within a table.
My problem is that some places in the world are writen the same way but are
not in the same contry and so don't have the same code.
now if i'm using the Vlookup it will only take the first name and sometimes
the wrong code.
How can i do, to let the function make an error if there are two or more
similair places?


thks in advance,
Flo

[Ian Nolan]

Flo,

A simple way to resolve this would be to create a new column in your
lookup table that has the count of the name your looking up. It would mean
you'd have to do two lookups - one for the country and another telling you
how many occurences there are of that word. You could, if you wish combine
these results via an if statement so it returns an indication that the
name is not unique.

Something like

IF(AND(NOT(ISNA((vlookup(country,code_list,column_num,false))),vlookup(country,code_list,column_number_of_country_count,false)=1),vlookup(country,code_list,column_num,false),"NON-UNIQUE/NON-EXISTENT
COUNTRY")

should work, and could be refined to differentiate between non-existent
and non-unique.

Hope this helps,
Regards,
Ian.