Excel formula not working in Numbers

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Level 1

10 points

Excel formula not working in Numbers

I have a puzzle for you if you're up to working it out. Should be pretty easy for someone used to working with Numbers formulas, unlike me.

I am trying to figure out how to create a drop-down menu for company names that would, when you select a certain company name from the drop down list, insert the contact info, address, phone number, etc.

I know it is on a Mac, but I'm hoping Numbers is as like Excel in this way and that you might know what to do.

OR…

How I can accomplish the same goal of having addresses, phone numbers etc come up when the company name is clicked on, only I would like to reference a different sheet within the spreadsheet. You'll see it on the left, called "vendor list".

This is the formula that was imported from Excel:

=IF(ISBLANK(VLOOKUP(B9,Vendor List::Table 1::A2:I256,4,TRUE)),"",VLOOKUP(B9,Vendor List::Table 1::A2:I256,4,TRUE))

Thanks for any help I can get, I appreciate your time.

MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Oct 4, 2012 9:16 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 4, 2012 9:17 PM in response to MegBischoff

post in the iWork Numbers forum.

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Answer 2

sberman

Level 10

277,862 points

Oct 4, 2012 9:26 PM in response to MegBischoff

It sure sounds like this Excel file exists.

Did you try importing it into Numbers? Did Numbers just throw up its hands? If Numbers could not import the file, did it provide any useful diagnostic information?

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Answer 3

MegBischoff Author

Level 1

10 points

Oct 4, 2012 9:28 PM in response to sberman

Numbers gives me an error message telling me a cell cannot reference itself.

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Answer 4

MegBischoff Author

Level 1

10 points

Oct 4, 2012 9:29 PM in response to shldr2thewheel

Sorry, I'm very new at all of this. 😊

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Answer 5

sberman

Level 10

277,862 points

Oct 4, 2012 9:37 PM in response to MegBischoff

OK, I guess that "IF" line you put in your original post is giving you this error message about referencing itself.

I think that line mean something roughly like: "If a specific cell [or cells] is blank, then set its value to "true".

Anyway, it sounds to me like if you get rid of that formula and deal with those cells (that satisfy the condition) on a case-by-case basis, if the rest of the Excel file imports successfully, you've achieved a whole lot of your objective.

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