Is there a formula to create a seating plan from an exisiting table

Mems,

Just so we get off on the right foot, which version of Numbers are you using?

Jerry

Mems,

That would be easy if you assign a table and a chair for each attendee. Instead of having 4 people assigned to table 1, assign them to 1a, 1b, 1c and 1d. That way it would be easy to fill them into the proper positions on the chart. Would you go for that?

Jerry

The formulas are in the second table, named "Tables".

In cell B2 (where is now says John Smith in the screen shot), Paste from this post:

=IFERROR(OFFSET(Data::$A$1,MATCH(B$1&$A2, Data::$D,0)−1 ,0)&" "&OFFSET(Data::$A$1,MATCH(B$1&$A2, Data::$D,0)−1 ,1),"-")

Copy that cell and Paste to all the body cells (where the names are to go).

That's it. Just be sure to name your tables exactly as I did, Data and TABLES.

Jerry

Megan,

Here are the important details:

1. Main data table name. For my formulas to work, your main table must be Data.

2. Column for seat number. In my example, the seat i.d. is in column D. In your main table, it appears that you will be using column K. This means that every instance of D will have to be changed to K.

3. Name columns have moved. Your first example had the first and last names in columns A and B. Since you inserted a Title column ahead of the names, I moved the Offset function anchor to column B.

That's a lot of changes, so I'm not surprised that you are having trouble. It would have been so much better if you had revealed the actual table layout in the first statement of the question.

If you do all that, and I'll save you the trouble, you will need:

=IFERROR(OFFSET(Data::$B$1,MATCH(B$1&$A2, Data::$K,0)−1 ,0)&" "&OFFSET(Data::$B$1,MATCH(B$1&$A2, Data::$K,0)−1 ,1),"-")

Fill Down and Fill Across

Make sure your receiving table (table of seat assignments) has the same Header text as my example, as the header cell text is used in the addressing.

Your result will now look something like this:

Regards,

Jerry