In a typical table of this nature there would be descriptive row and column
headers. To do a lookup on this table you would then look for the
intersection of a specific row header and a specific column header.
Here's a simplified example...
...........A..........B..........C
1.................gizmoA...gizmoB
2.....blue........12.........10
3.....black......15.........21
You want to know how many black gizmoA's are in stock.
Lookup values:
E1: black
F1: gizmoA
Formula entered in G1:
=VLOOKUP(E1,A1:C3,MATCH(F1,A1:C1,0),0)
The lookup values in E1 and F1 can be selected using a data validation drop
down list. Watch this short video.
How to setup a data validation drop down list:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=t2OsWJijrOM
--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP
"Dallasm" wrote in message
...
I have a spreadsheet with $costs arranged according to values in both rows
and columns.
How do I create drop down lists for both the rows and columns and then
return the cell value?
eg if I have 5 rows (2-6) and 6 columns (B-G) with costs arranged in each
cell within this group how do I create drop downs for each selection, 2-6
and
B-G, and return the value to a selected cell.