table references

[Lion06]

I hate having to post this question because I consider myself pretty good in Excel, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to use a table properly. What I'm trying to do is to have a table with steel beam properties. I would like to have a drop down box such that when I select the beam section from the drop down box the appropriate section properties are referenced. I've followed the tutorial for tables, but it keeps giving me a value error or a reference error. I even made the exact table that is in the example and copied their formulas, but it still isn't working.
Am I just missing a big picture thing here?

 

[Lion06]

Nevermind, I figured it out.

 

[Terrifyingtesttube]

difficult to diagnose, except to tell you what the errors mean...

which tutorial are you following? I can check if I get the same issues.

 

[Terrifyingtesttube]

excellent

 

[Lion06]

I used the vlookup function. Up until this point, I've been using Excel as a programming tool and have had little need to reference more than maybe 8-12 cells, so I've always used embedded 'if' statements. The prospect of having 300 'if' statements was a little daunting so I wanted to learn how to look up values.

 

[SKIAK]

The lookup functions are nice for that sort of thing. I've always found it handy to label columns of data when using the lookup functions. Then if you (or anybody else) goes back to look at or change the formulas they make more sense. Instead of:

=LOOKUP(C1,SHAPES!A2:A275,SHAPES!C2:C275)

where SHAPES is the label of the workbook tab, it can look like,

=LOOKUP(C1,Shape,Sx)

where Shape is a column of data for the steel shapes (WXxY) and Sx is a column of data for the section modulus.