I modified the first line formula to deal with list cells containing empty strings (from IF statement). The same modification to the supplimentary formulas doesn’t work.

1) Is there a better way to deal with empty strings since you can’t set the cell to a true blank as it contains a formula?

2) Can someone explain the logic of the formula below. I don’t follow it at all.

{=COUNTIF($S$6:$S$105,”<”&$S$6:$S$105)}

Thanks again

Steve

MY APPLICATION:

It works great, and I’ve also taken some inspiration from the suggestion of PaulB to get it working with numbers and other characters. I’m using it to create dynamic range names, using the formula below, in order to create validation lists.

=OFFSET(LookUp!$G$6,0,0,ROWS(LookUp!$G$6:$G$99)-COUNTIF(LookUp!$G$6:$G$99,”"),1)

MY PROBLEM:

Now I have the next problem… (Never satisfied I know).

I have an initial list that is created as a formula.
The formular is a simple concatenation of additional other data wrapped up in an IF statement.

=IF(OR(ISBLANK(H93),ISBLANK(I93)),”",H93 & ” (” & I93 & “)”)

Now, when I try to created a sorted list it doesn’t create a list at all.
The problem with the first line was the ISBLANK statement which I modified to ($G$6:$G$105=”") to get it working, see below.

=INDEX($G$6:$G$105,MATCH(MIN(COUNTIF($G$6:$G$105,”<”&$G$6:$G$105&”")+COUNT($G$7:$G$106)*ISTEXT($G$6:$G$105)+100000*($G$6:$G$105=”")),COUNTIF($G$6:$G$105,”<”&$G$6:$G$105&”")+COUNT($G$6:$G$105)*ISTEXT($G$6:$G$105)+100000*($G$6:$G$105=”"),0))

I then tried the same for the following lines which are also wrapped up in an IF statement to avoid the unwanted #NA’s. Here my solution doesn’t work. The formula is below.

=IF(ISNA(INDEX($G$6:$G$105,MATCH(0,COUNTIF($G$6:$G$105,”<”&$G$6:$G$105)+COUNT($G$6:$G$105)*ISTEXT($G$6:$G$105)+100000*($G$6:$G$105=”")-SUM(COUNTIF($G$6:$G$105,”=”&$G$107:G107)),0))),”",INDEX($G$6:$G$105,MATCH(0,COUNTIF($G$6:$G$105,”<”&$G$6:$G$105)+COUNT($G$6:$G$105)*ISTEXT($G$6:$G$105)+100000*($G$6:$G$105=”")-SUM(COUNTIF($G$6:$G$105,”=”&$G$107:G107)),0)))

So, with a bit of debugging, I’ve tracked the problem to the section of the formula reading ” COUNTIF($S$6:$S$105,”<”&$S$6:$S$105) “. This formula returns 1 when all blank cells are deleted (empty) and a larger number when the blank cells still contain the formula (with empty string set).

How do I solve this?

MY QUESTION:

Can someone explain me what the array formula is actually doing here to point me in the right direction to solving this. I simply don’t understand the logic!

{=COUNTIF($S$6:$S$105,”<”&$S$6:$S$105)}

ALREADY ATTEMPTED SOLUTIONS (None Worked):

1) The first line writes this statement with an additional &”" appended to the criteria. No change.

2) Setting the formula column to an array formula created more problems to try and deal and didn’t seem like an appropriate or effective solution to I quit this line of tests.

3) Considered using a macro to run the concatenation, but seemed pointless having spent so much time getting this formula working so as to avoid macro warnings for the user.

4) Considered dynamic validations to avoid the need for concatenation to begin with but that doesn’t suit my application.

5) … a bunch of other things that I don’t think of now.

FINAL COMMENTS:

Any help or pointers would be appreciated. This is a seriously cool formula and application I’ve found to use it, just need to tweak this last little bit

Cheers

Steve

I tried to use the formula but it brings the first entry in the range “data” always when i copy to extend the formula in the column “sorted” for the remaining rows.

What might be the reason behind it?

thks in advance,

Ozan

=INDEX(Data,MATCH(ROW(INDIRECT(“1:”&ROWS(Data)))-1,COUNTIF(Data,”<” &Data),0))

Thanks …

I have created an array formula that sorts text and numbers and removes blanks: http://www.get-digital-help.com/2009/06/06/sorting-numbers-and-text-cells-also-removing-blanks-using-array-formula-in-excel/

I hope this can be helpful, any comments?

Appreciate your help. Thank you very much.

Best regards,

1. Use Excel Sort ; then, duplicate names are grouped in one place.

2. Use Excel Conditional Format ; then, duplicate names are highlighted thereof in respective groups.

3. Use Excel AutoFilter ; then, you can examine respective groups of duplicate names in turn.

4. Recurring names like J.R._Junior, J.R-Junior, JR.Junior etc are admittedly more difficult to detect as duplicate names.

5. If you would allow limited disclosure, please send a copy of your Excel worksheet of 7000 names (truncated if need be) to,
TimCourtParker@gmail.com.

6. However, before I could offer any assistance at all, please exercise discretion (by your good-self) while sharing the list …… it should not incur any infringement of interests upon the parties involved.

Regards.