Indirect/Vlookup Formula

[stipa951]

Hi Everyone!
I've been trying to figure this out forever, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm trying to create a template. This template will have a LONG list of numbers in the first column, with a bunch of categories in each column of the row above. Also, for each number listed I will have a tab that corresponds with it. What I want to do, is write a formula that will look up the number I have listed on my summary slide, look through the tabs to find that number, and return a row for me to populate information.

HELP!!!!

[Spreadsheet Surfer]

Hi,

You may have to play with it a bit but I think this formula will help...

=VLOOKUP(x,INDIRECT(""&y&"!"&z),#1,#2)

Key:

x = what you want to look up
y= create a "dummy variable" that is the same exact name as the tab in which you want to look up; i.e.create an extra column with the names of all your tabs and this will be column y, i.e. if one tab is called "cat", y should = "cat"
z= create a dummy variable for your range; i.e. in each individual tab, if the range you are looking in as A1:D56, then create another extra column and just copy and past "A1:D56" in each cell in this column
#1 = # of columns over the data that you want to return is located
#2 = either 1 or 0 depending on exactness of data