How to identify the top 3 for each category

Friends,

I need this help! I have this huge database and I am attaching a snap shot of it with this. I need to find the top 3 for each category..and there are thousand of category in this database.(using Excel 2007). kindly someone guide me on how to do this in automated way(Using formulas). I cannot manually do a group by categories so the utility must be intelligent enough to identify that the next row is with the new category ..so search for top three within the range.

category customer
0G34 a 200 2010-W20
0G34 a 4 2010-W20
0G34 a 264 2010-W20
0G34 a 167 2010-W20
0G34 a 3 2010-W20
0G54 b 2 2010-W20
0G60 c 30 2010-W20
0G60 c 10 2010-W20
0G60 c 80 2010-W20
0G60 c 1 2010-W20
0G62 e 150 2010-W20
0G62 e 2 2010-W20
0G62 e 180 2010-W20
0G62 e 370 2010-W20
0J11 f 150 2010-W20
0J11 f 1400 2010-W20
0J11 f 50 2010-W20
0J11 f 3 2010-W20
0J11 f 30 2010-W20
0J14 g 20 2010-W20
0J14 g 300 2010-W20
0J14 g 40 2010-W20
0J14 g 45 2010-W20
0J14 g 235 2010-W20
0J14 g 1990 2010-W20



Expected Result of top 3 customers for each category

category Top Second Third
0G34 a 264 200 167
0G54 b 2 NA NA
0G60 c 80 30 10
0G62 e 370 180 150
0J11 f 1400 150 30
0J14 g 1990 300 235


Thanks,
Raj

Just to repost with the excel file ...if in case the last post is not clear..Apologies for duplication ..I am new o this forum ..

Kindly find the excel file with this ..where I am trying to find the top 3 customers for each categories(the categories are in thousands)

Thanks,
Raj

Thanks chief! ..it helps !

Regards,
Raj

Originally Posted by ChemistB

Okay, in your example, in G3 dragged down
=VLOOKUP(F3,$A$3:$B$27, 2,)

In H3 entered as an Array (CNTRL SHIFT ENTER)
=IFERROR(LARGE(IF($A$3:$A$27=$F3,$C$3:$C$27,""),COLUMN(A1)),"N/A")
(IFERROR only works with 2007 and up. If you want compatability with 2003, you'll need to use an IF with ISERROR to get your "N/A"s.
See attachment.
Does that work for you?