Using a range of numbers as an input to a cell to get a result in another cell.

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Level 1

4 points

Using a range of numbers as an input to a cell to get a result in another cell.

Hello Everyone,

I have been round and round so this is my last resort. This is hard to explain but I will try.

In Numbers, I have a cell (call it "A") where I manually input a time (on the hour) to get a result in cell B after a bunch of different equations evaluate the time against a set of data, flight information for example, and return a range of results (in time) from said set of data. For example, latest time to earliest time I could take a flight if I got out of work at this specific time, based on travel time that differs based on traffic. (Just an example)

On a separate sheet I have all the times from 0:00 to 23:00 in a column. I would like to input each of those times into cell A to get the results of each time in cell B.

How can I tell the spreadsheet I would like to try each of these values (hourly time) in cell A and then have it list the results of cell B in the column next to the column of hourly times? The location of the resulting data isn't important. I can't figure out how to do "If cell A has this value, then what does cell B end up being?" for a range of values.

I don't want to say "equals" because everyone jumps to an IF command and that is not what I want. I DON'T mean does A = 0 or 1. I mean if I insert "2:00" into cell A, what is the result in cell B? If I insert 3:00 into cell A, what does B return?

Fingers crossed!

Thank you.

Posted on Mar 30, 2024 9:09 PM

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Answer 1

Badunit

Level 7

31,268 points

Mar 31, 2024 6:32 AM in response to D328jet

I think Excel has a the capability to do "what if" analysis like that. Numbers does not. You will need to replicate your formula or set of formulas for each different input value. A typical way to do this is to put all the formulas in a single row or column so that all formulas required to go from input to result is in that one row or column. Write the formulas with the correct cell reference types (preserve column, row, or both as applicable) so they can be drag-filled to the rest of the rows/columns. Each of these rows/columns will have one input and provide one result.

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