I initially thought about combining lookups with IF statements but it got *really* messy. A little digging revealed a pretty handy solution, which I thought I’d share with you all…

The answer lay in combining the MATCH and INDEX functions* – the former (used twice) to locate both the Role and Rating in the appropriate arrays, then the latter to locate the corresponding intersection:

MATCH(A18,$A$2:$A$8,0) searches the range A2:A8 for the role held in A18
MATCH(B18,$B$1:$F$1,0) searches the range B1:F1 for the rating held in B18
INDEX($A$1:$F$8,(MATCH(A18,$A$2:$A$8,0)+1),(MATCH(B18,$B$1:$F$1,0)+1)) locates the intersection. Note the “+1″ that deals with the header rows/columns in the INDEX array (A1:F8).

This works, but will return a #N/A! error if the referring cells are empty. Some people don’t mind this, but I prefer to clean things up a bit by using an additional IF statement and the ISNA function; effectively stating “If the index/match formula returns a #N/A! error, display a blank. Else, display the formula results”.

Now, this formula is a little unwieldy, so you can download the sample Excel file here.

Hope you find it useful!

*http://support.microsoft.com/kb/214142

This is the first real step on my road to justification… I’ve been training MS products for years but have only now started to get the appropriate piece of paper that says I know what I’m talking about!

Since changing jobs a month ago, I’ve really developed a renewed enthusiasm for training again – can’t wait to get the other exams under my belt so I can legitimately be called “Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor”.