linked drop down list boxes and external source

**haggisns** · 08-26-2010, 01:53 PM

Hi,

I would like to load a drop down list from a csv file.
The csv file would look like this

group A,member 1
group A, member 2
group A, member 3
group B, Member 4
group B, Member 5

The dropdown listbox cell would exist for each row of column A and be loaded
with group A and Group B.

When the user selects Group A or B this would drive the populate of the adjacent list box cell in Column C with only member for Group A for example.

ie.: Select Group A in Cell A1 means that dropdown list box cell only has
Member 1, Member 2, and Member 3 available for selection.

Is this possible?

I know this would be easier if a range of cells were included in a second worksheet, or something but the list comes from an external source. this csv file would be updated every week.

Thanks

Chris

**JBeaucaire** · 08-26-2010, 02:17 PM

The external worksheet would need to be imported into your worksheet into that secondary worksheet and the values updated. You would also need to create named ranges out of this data since data validation lists only work on names ranges unless all the source lists are on the same worksheet, which is usually untidy.

**sportsguy** · 08-26-2010, 03:07 PM

Use a Data Validation List with initial values
Put the data from an access database

On change of cell,
retrieve information from access database. .

I created spreadsheet with a validation cell with listing of all US states
change the state, excel goes to access, pulls down all counties
next cell has a validation of all the counties, select a county
excel goes into access and gets all the cities in the county
the next data validation cell has all the cities, select the city
excel then goes into the access database and gets the pricing information
and populates the excel sheet with various pricing elements.

I have designed this several times, its fast, easy, and can work efficiently
over a network with ADO

sportsguy