VLOOKUP and dropdowns

cwolfram

Hi! I'm trying to return a date from a VLOOKUP but the search is in a dropdown. It is saying no match despite the name being in the sheet. Does my information have to switch out of a dropdown for this function to work?

Kelly Moore

Hey @cwolfram .

Is your dropdown a single select dropdown (one answer per cell) or is it a multiselect dropdown (allows multiple answers in the same cell). There are some restrictions on multiselect dropdowns. NoMatches often result when the data listed as the match and the data being searched are different types - ie, one is numeric and one is a textstring.

If it is possible for you to share a screenshot of the relevant columns in your lookup source and destination sheets? Also share formula that you are using? Don't share sensitive data.

Kelly

cwolfram

Hi @Kelly Moore. The dropdowns are multi-select. They are generated from an attendance form so they restrict those filling it out to only selecting names as opposed to typing them and potentially misspelling something. Here are the screenshots. The first screenshot is of the Call Attendance sheet and the second is the one I am putting the formula into. The formula I was using, based on another user's post on here, is…

=INDEX({Consultation Call Attendance Range 2}, MATCH(Helper@row + "Program Directors" + "11" + "2024", {Consultation Call Attendance Range 1}, 0))

If this is not possible, I can edit the sheet/form. I'm trying to figure out how to merge all of this data for a quarterly report. Thanks for your help and suggestions!

Kelly Moore

Hey @cwolfram

Thanks for the screenshot. Are you trying to match a single name (contact) to November attendees? Are you trying to gather all the contacts that appear on the Program Directors row (and are there more columns than just the [Individuals in Attendance (PD)] that would house the Program Directors attendees? Are you needing names, or counts? In the Destination sheet (bottom), is there any column that calls out the same groups that appear in your source sheet Consultation Group - that is, does "Program Directors" appear on a row in the destination sheet?

Multi-select contact columns can be challenging columns to extract useful data from, depending on what you are trying to do with the information.

In your formula field, where you expecting, for example, 'Donald Duck' or 'Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Daffy Duck, etc'. Were you calling out 'Donald Duck' in the Names column and wanting to see if he appeared in your November list?