Pull, Compare and Get a Result

[V8Maverick]

Hi,

Can anyone help me, I have a set of conditional drop-down lists (using vlookup and then =indirect(a1) as the validation list for the next drop-down. This isn't the problem, the problem I have then is that I want excel to pull the three drop-downs into a single string (i.e. List1: 205 List2: /55 List3: R16 being outputted to 205/55R16 and then checked in a list to return a price for this item to a specific cell (i.e. A5).

What's the best way of doing this? I was thinking of using concatenate(a2,b2,c2) in cell d2 to return a single string and then vlookup against a full pricelist (just 2 columns, full size and price)... but, before I work on standardising the database of 21 pages of items and prices, would it work like this, or is there an easier way?

Thanks

[romperstomper]

That should work. Cleaning up the database sounds tyring though (sorry!)

[V8Maverick]

Ah well, I was hoping I could be lazy and use a VBA to search for the string in part or all of the product description and avoid having to manually standardise the database.

[romperstomper]

You can do that too if you want.

[V8Maverick]

Another one... that should make my job easier in future. Is there a way to point drop down list at a single column, which does include a lot of duplicate entries and have excel treat the duplicates as a single entry and display it only once, i.e. the list goes 175 175 175 175 185 185 185 195.... but I'd like the drop down to just show 175 185 195 etc etc.

Is excel clever enough for this?

[romperstomper]

You can use the advanced filter to create unique lists that you can use, but the DV dropdown will not do it natively.

[V8Maverick]

You can do that too if you want.

I could... but I'm still learning VBA (been at it a whole 3 days!) and have just 2 more days to return a finished project - I'm not sure I could learn enough VBA to make it work in this short a time, with the other project I have to have finished in 2 days as well running at the same time.

[romperstomper]

Personally, I would probably use a userform for this and have the three comboboxes on it, then a listbox below that displays all matching items in the database, together with the prices. Shouldn't be that tricky depending on the database layout, but we'd need to see a sample of the data and structure if you want concrete help rather than abstract.

[V8Maverick]

Okay, I'll extract some of the data and post into a sample workbook here. I have another question, but as it's not related I'll start a new thread...