i have two spreadsheets

master - contains all the data for all the benefit plans. from this spreadsheet i need to lookup the employee first by the ss# column and then i need to find a match to a specific benefit_plan (i.e. medical, dental)

the second spreadsheet also has the ss# for the employee, but i need to lookup in the master to see whether that specific employee actually has medical or not.

can you use two columns to define the employee and then return the needed item as true or false?

i am enclosing two sample files.

Attached Files

	test master.xlsx (9.3 KB, 30 views)
	test medical.xlsx (8.9 KB, 21 views)

simply apply the vlookup formula in the first sheet.

I hope this is also OK for MAC, but try the following

in the "test master" sheet in F4 enter and pull down as needed

in the "test medical" one in C4 enter in D4 and pull down as needed

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excellent! i'll try it monday and let you know if it works. where do i find formulas like this one? i have an excel 2007 formulas book but i didn't find anything like this in there.

I doubt you will find it in any book whatsoever. I got it by moderating excel forums and creating a library of answers by forum gurus -
This problem can also be solved with an INDEX/MATCH combination

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