Comments on: Excel Creating Unique Identifiers

By: Nikul S.

Nikul S. — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 10:21:36 +0000

Hi,

I tried using this formula to generate unique IDs for a list of 400,000 names which has almost 16,000 unique names. But as soon as I reached 30,000 the excel either stops responding or urges to stop the program saying it cannot handle too long formula.

Can you please help me out of such a challenging task.

By: sam

sam — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:30:55 +0000

Hello,

I am trying to find a very similar formula except using 2 columns of data, e.g.:

Invoice Number Vendor

I want add a unique identifier where the Invoice number is the same however the Vendor is different and if both are the same then use the same identifier.

I tried to use the formula and add a second column and it does not seem to work. Please help

Thank You

By: Craig

Craig — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:24:34 +0000

This is great, thanks for your help!

By: John

John — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:18:45 +0000

Jason

I assume this only works on 2007, I’m using Excel 2003 & can’t seem to get it to work.

By: Jayson

Jayson — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:10:34 +0000

@jason

either formula will return the same result. In the original it is pinning the top right of the range, yours will pin the top left.

If you try it then look at the formulas you’ve dragged down, you’ll notice a change in the absolute ranges.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:32:31 +0000

Are you sure your equation is correct? Shouldn’t the absolute cells be at the beginning of each of the arrays?

Thus, the correct equation:
=IF(ISNA(MATCH(B7,$B$6:B6,0)),MAX($C$6:C6)+1,VLOOKUP(B7,$B$6:C6,2,FALSE))