Hey guys,

I have 2 excel charts. Need to populate info from one them into another. 1 column is common between the two charts, consisting of a ID code (xxxx-xxxx) for each row. Do you know of any easy to populate chart 2 with the info contained in chart 1 using the ID codes?

does that make sense?

 

I'm pretty sure you are talking about vlookup.

1. Put the two charts into the same file but in different sheets. If they are in different files, this formula won't work.

2. Go to chart 1. Create a new column. Type in the following formula in a cell.

=vlookup(select the ID code column in this sheet, click on the other sheet, click on the ID code column and drag the cursor to include the column that includes the information you want to import, number of columns you just selected, false)

The commas separate the commands. So each bold face explanation I wrote above is separated by a comma. As you follow the instructions, hit the comma on your keyboard and Excel will automatically recognize it. In fact, as soon as you put in =vlookup, it will bring up the formula for you.

3. Populate column by double clicking on the bottom right corner of the cell.

This is probably confusing. If it doesn't make sense, then look up (no pun intended) help for vlookup in Excel.

 

Rough example of what PA said:

=VLOOKUP(A1,Chart2!A$1:C$200,3,FALSE)

 

4?

 

ok so you have 2 ways of doing it....

1> PRO way: use vlookup as mentioned above....

2> NAIVE way: sort the sheet 1 using the ID-code....sort the sheet 2 using the same.....copy them together....make sure all the id's match.....delete 1 duplicate id column....

now if you have 2000 id's in sheet 1 and 1000 in sheet 2....do not use the naive way....u will spend couple days doing it, so use the vlookup.....but if you have 2000 in sheet1 and 1990 in sheet 2....u can use the naive way and check every 200th row for a match !!!

 

vlookup is the tool you need

 

Thanks guys. The project got sidetracked, but I appreciate the help.

 

just make sure after you vlookup that you copy then paste special, values that you inserted because if you change anything later it can mess up your lookup. Plus you won't get that annoying pop up about updating data when you open the file.