VLOOKUP to Return Formula?

SYSPK

How can I use a VLOOKUP to return a formula instead of a string? How should that formula appear on the source sheet?

I've tried putting it in quotations then extracting with FIND, but no luck.

Andrée Starå

Hi,

Unfortunately, as far as I know, it's not possible at the moment, but it's an excellent idea!

Please submit an Enhancement Request when you have a moment.

I hope that helps!

Have a fantastic day!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

Paul Newcome

Can you provide more details as to what you are doing and trying to accomplish?

 

It may be that you could use an IF statement to say that IF VLOOKUP returns "data", reference this cell on the other sheet.

 

The cell on the other sheet could contain the formula using cross sheet references.

 

While you may not be able to accomplish EXACTLY what you are trying to do, there may be other ways to accomplish what you need.

SYSPK

Thanks for the replies. I spoke to Support who said there's no way to do that currently. But I've come up with a workaround formula. Now I need help condensing the formula.

I need to keep track of documents for different states. I basically need a concatenated letter combination of which documents are entered in and not blank. In the screenshot example, there are 4 types that go in the proper slot. Some of what gets input there are dates and some are text. All the slots are date columns so I can monitor deadlines.

I'd like to end up with a final column that lists the combination of document slots whose cells aren't blank. So if something is filled in slot A and slot C, I want that final column to say "AC," regardless of whether it's a date or text.

A nested IF with HAS might do the trick, but I don't want the formula to stop in its tracks if a row doesn't have a letter.

Any ideas?

SYSPK

This picture shows the workaround. I made separate columns for each slot where I can individually keep track of all documents that are entered. Then I CONCATENATE them in another column to get the final result.

I'd really like to reduce the amount of formula columns on my sheet.

Paul Newcome

There are a couple of ways. The most straightforward being a set of combined IF statements.

 

You would take the formulas you already have and "add" them together.

 

=IF(NOT(ISBLANK([Slot A]@row)), "A") + IF(NOT(ISBLANK([Slot B]@row)), "B") + .................... + ................................

SYSPK

IT WORKED THANK YOU!!!!!

Paul Newcome

Excellent! Happy to help!