Finding a serial number in a list of serial numbers

**zocoloco** · 02-04-2009, 03:14 AM

Hi,
I'm trying to implement a function in my excel sheet without much success this far. Would be very happy if anyone could help me out here.

What I'm trying to do:
I have a list in an excel sheet where I write in instruments that I receive for repair with their serial numbers. The serial numbers can have the shape of GS2-05040023 or simply a number like 1033 and so on. On a different tab in the sheet, I want to be able to write a list of serial numbers that have special properties, i.e. this instrument needs this certain handling. I would preferably not want to sort these in any particular order, just add them in the bottom of the list all the time. When I then write a serial into my main list, I want a cell next to the just written serial to show whether this serial is in the "special" list, to make me go there and check what I need to consider for this individual.

Don't know whether this explanation is clear for anyone, but I hope so.

As said, I would be very happy to receive some kind of feedback on this problem.

**JBeaucaire** · 02-04-2009, 04:03 AM

Something like this looks at a number in cell A7, and compares it to range of cells on another sheet, in this case a sheet called SpecialIDs:

=IF(ISNUMBER(MATCH(A7,SpecialIDs!$A$2:$A$100)),"Special","")