Help: Multiple Search in Excel within One Column

[salford]

Hi all.

I've had a search around the internet but I've not been able to find a solution to my problem, or at least I think I haven't.

I work for a small local charity and we have list of supporters with their contact details.

I need to break this list down into smaller ones. Creating a constituency lists which is based on peoples post codes. At the moment I can only go through each postcode one by one.

An example of the column would be:

M28 1AB
M28 1AC
M28 2BB
M28 2BC

The first two would be in constituency A and the last two in constituency B.

Is there a method of searching for M28 1AB and M28 1AC at the same time?

Thanks for any help!

Jack

[Richard Buttrey]

Hi,

Sounds like you need Data Filter.

Create data filter drop down arrows and use the 'Text Begins with 'M281' as a criteria to filter those rows.

[salford]

Hi,

Sounds like you need Data Filter.

Create data filter drop down arrows and use the 'Text Begins with 'M281' as a criteria to filter those rows.

My example was a little simplistic.

The postcodes can be totally random

M28 1AB and M30 7FH can be in the same constituency. Would I be able to search both of these post codes at once?

[ben_hensel]

Hmm... I would create another column, adjacent to the zip codes, labeled "Constituency".

Somewhere else (another worksheet, off to the side, whatever) I would create a master table of postal codes in one column and matching constituencies in the second column.

Then pump the zip codes through that table with VLOOKUP(zip_code, that_table, 2, FALSE), and drop that down, and then use that newly populated Constituency column to filter the data.

I feel a LOOKUP(TABLE) approach is going to be your best bet... although my particular approach might not do it for you.

[salford]

Hmm... I would create another column, adjacent to the zip codes, labeled "Constituency".

Somewhere else (another worksheet, off to the side, whatever) I would create a master table of postal codes in one column and matching constituencies in the second column.

Then pump the zip codes through that table with VLOOKUP(zip_code, that_table, 2, FALSE), and drop that down, and then use that newly populated Constituency column to filter the data.

I feel a LOOKUP(TABLE) approach is going to be your best bet... although my particular approach might not do it for you.

Thanks for your help.

I'll try this out now.

[salford]

Hmm... I would create another column, adjacent to the zip codes, labeled "Constituency".

Somewhere else (another worksheet, off to the side, whatever) I would create a master table of postal codes in one column and matching constituencies in the second column.

Then pump the zip codes through that table with VLOOKUP(zip_code, that_table, 2, FALSE), and drop that down, and then use that newly populated Constituency column to filter the data.

I feel a LOOKUP(TABLE) approach is going to be your best bet... although my particular approach might not do it for you.

Thanks for your help.

On some it wouldn't work, it said there was "circular referencing". On the last one it worked 100%, I think because the post codes in the master table and normal table were in alphabetical order.

Done it all in a couple of hours anyway. Would have taken me weeks without your help.

Thank you!