use an ideal function to MATCH

Hello oeldere,

I have found the results in column J manually. For example J3 which is 'Houston', is found in BCD1E1 ports (ABCE columns rispectively). Which function should I use to tell me that these ports are in those headers/or columns if you like?
Regarding column N, to group the ports that have same prices in both columns L/M i did conditional formatting and then sorting. Is there a quicker way?

If we can assume you are performing the look up from another sheet, then try:

=VLOOKUP(A1,Sheet1!$I$2:$J$43,2,FALSE)

Where cell A1 is the input cell containing the look up value (e.g. "Houston")

Is this what you need?

I understand, from post #3 that in BCD1E1 BCD represent the Columns B, C and D. but what does the 1E1 represent?

my understanding (so far), is that, in your example, for "Houston", you want to return the those 3 column numbers, but why not E-H...what criteria excludes them, and what criteria includes B-D?

@ Cutter ok that makes sense, but why only those 3, and based on what criteria? or am i totally missing something here?

Hello All, sorry for my late reply...

Cutter's assumption is correct.. But let me reform my inquiry better including my initial steps so as to clearly pinpoint where I want to arrive:
1. I created column I, including ALL -single- Port names that exist in columns A to H (I did this with VLOOKUP's and a conditional formatting/unique just to ensure i did not miss any port).
2. I created column J, and wrote manually all the locations (as I wrote in post 3, example for Houston is found in ABCE columns or if you like under Header Ports B-C-D1-E1) of each port according to column I.
3.I sorted by A to Z column J. (sorry i didn't not include step 3 in the sample) by the way
Why I did 1+2+3, is because I want to create categories of ports that are repeated in the SAME EXACT location. For instance ONLY Curacao and Freeport Bahamas ports are present in B-D2-E4 (or in columns ADH if you prefer) so they create category group 1. Now HOUSTON, AMSTERDAM, PIRAEUS,FUJAIRAH,DUBAI,SINGAPORE,ROTTERDAM,CRISTOBAL,ANTWERP,and FREEPORT TX are present in BCD1E1 so they go under category group 2, and so on and so forth. Sothen to creat a new column where there will be numerical list of groups of ports that are found in identical location.

My MAIN CONCERNS are how I can manage to create columns I and then J with a function/formulae and avoid the manual way (like checking with the eye of making too many Vlookups in several columns..). Once column J is done to create the groups is much easier.

*I purposely did not 'blend' columns K-L-M so as to avoid confusions.Column K is actually column C but its more complicate respect the other port columns because L is accompanied with prices... Just ignore their existence :-)