Creating a database of clients

**dmr282** · 10-08-2010, 11:57 AM

Hi guys little help needed here if poss...I'm looking to create a database of phone numbers and email address' for my managers clients but really wouldn't have a clue where to start. Can anybody tell me how I can select an item from a drop down list and have it show the contact information for each option in cell A1 & A2, for example?

I would like to have the drop down list showing the clients name. When an name is selected it will show the phone number ( in A1) and fax/email address ( in A2)

Any clues how to get started would be much apreciated

cheers!

**Richard Buttrey** · 10-08-2010, 12:14 PM

Hi,

1. Name your range of client names say 'Clients'
2. Name your drop down cell say 'Selection'
3. Name your database say 'Data'
4. With your drop down cell use Data Validation and choose the List option specifying the list name as 'Clients'
5. If your database contains the list of clients in the first column then in A1 you can use

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where column 10 of the database contains the phone number. And a similar VLOOKUP() in A2 but change the column number as appropriate.

If the list of clients is not the first column of the data then in A1 use

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where column J in sheet1 contains the phone number. Adapt in A2 as appropriate and if necessary change the Sheet1 reference.

HTH

**dmr282** · 10-09-2010, 04:11 AM

Hi Richard thanks for the reply.

To be honest, I got lost after the first couple of steps. I only got round to naming the cell ranges and creating the drop down. Nothing seems to work for me after this

I've attached a basic worksheet showing what I would like to do. Any chance you could have a quick look and help me out here? Still new to excel so it would probably be easier seeing it working in action and dissecting the codes/formulas myself

Thanks again

**zbor** · 10-09-2010, 04:21 AM

According to your example write this in J2 and pull down:

=VLOOKUP($G$2, $A$1:$D$100, ROWS($A$1:A1), FALSE)

**dmr282** · 10-09-2010, 04:37 AM

Originally Posted by zbor

According to your example write this in J2 and pull down:

=VLOOKUP($G$2, $A$1:$D$100, ROWS($A$1:A1), FALSE)

Thanks mate, worked a charm

Guess I better start learning to use this VLOOKUP function :-/

**zbor** · 10-09-2010, 04:45 AM

It's a very important function. Try to learn it.. For example here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCLUM0UMLXo

**dmr282** · 10-09-2010, 07:59 AM

Cheers for the video, it helped a lot!

Just wondering, would you know how to create a sub menu for a drop down list?

I would like to be able to select a specific town/city from the first box and have it display the our clients from that area in box #2.

From there, the information you gave earlier would help to display the contact information for each client. I've attached another example if you don't mind taking a quick look. ta