How to move data from one cell/sheet to another

Question

Hi - Help! I have a spreadsheet with multiple columns & rows for ordering clothes. The first column is  text of each item & it's size. What I want to do is:
IF D15 has a number in it, I want that number and the text from A15 to populate into another sheet.
Then I want to re-create this function in all the cells, so that if ANY cell has a number in it, that number and the text in the A column of that row shows up in the new sheet, in the corresponding cell.
here's a screen shot of my sheet:
Any help would be great!!
Kim

Answer 1

Hi Kim,
I got the same error message when building the formula—it's easy to get lost in all the parentheses!
Here's a breakdown of the formula I used.
=IF(OFFSET(Data :: $A$1,ROW()-1,COLUMN())>0,OFFSET(Data :: $A$1,ROW()-1,COLUMN())&" - "&OFFSET(Data :: $A$1,ROW()-1,0),"")
The overall stucture is an IF statement:
IF(test,"Yes","No")
IF(there is a value greater than zero in this cell's 'partner' on the main table,
  (then) copy that value here and append the label in column A of the main table, separated by a space, a dash, and a second space,
    (otherwise) put an empty text string here)
Test: OFFSET(Data :: $A$1,ROW()-1,COLUMN())>0
The 'partner' cell on the main table is the one on the same row and one column to the right of the cell containing the formula. (eg. for Summary::B2, the 'partner cell to be tested is Data::C2, the first data cell for Person 2)
OFFSET(base,r,c)>0 compares the value in the cell r rows below and c columns to the right of the base cell with the value zero.
Data::$A$1: A1 is my usual choice for the base cell, as it usually simplifies the calculations for r and c.
ROW()-1: ROW() returns the row number of the row in which it is located. In B2, it will return 2. '-1' reduces that value to 1, the row offset necessary to get from Data::A1 to Data::b2.
COLUMN(): COLUMN() returns the column number of the column in which it is located. In B2 it will return 2.  No adjustment is necessary, as 2 is the column offset necessary to get from Data::A1 to Data::C2
OFFSET returns the value in Data::C2 and compares it with 0 (zero). The value (1) is greater than 0, so the test returns TRUE, and the IF function acts on the "yes" section.
Yes: OFFSET(Data :: $A$1,ROW()-1,COLUMN())&" - "&OFFSET(Data :: $A$1,ROW()-1,0)
This section contains two OFFSET statements.
The first is the same as the one in Test, and returns the value in the tested cell (1).
The second is the same, except for the third argument (c) which is fixed at 0 (zero). This returns the value in the cell in column A (zero columns to the right of A1) in the same row as the tested cell.
The two returned values are linked by this expression: &" - "&
"&" is the concatenation operator, which joins the values left and right of it into a text string. Here, the value returned by the first OFFSET (1) is joined to the text (space-space) contained between the double quotes, and that is joined to the value returned by the second OFFSET function (Item 1)
No: ""
If there is no number entered in the Data cell being tested, IF acts on the "no" section of the formula, and inserts an empty string ( "" ) in the cell containing the formula. An empty string displays as 'blank', and is the closest one can get to an 'empty' cell using a formula.
Regarding your questions:
"I seem to not understand what I'm supposed to put in the () and " " 's. I copied and pasted it and got the error message "the formula contains an invalid referance". DO i put certain row/cell numbers in somewhere?"
ROW() and COLUMN() should have no argument entered between the parentheses. Each returns the row or column number of the cell containing the formula.
The double quotes at the end of the IF statement define a text string with no text. You can put any text between them, but that text will then appear in all cells whose 'partner' cell does not contain a number greater than zero.
The 'invalid reference' error message usually means a formula is referencing a cell that is not on the table. My guess is that your Summary table includes a copy of column A from your Data table. That would place "Person 1" in column B on both tables, and would require an adjustment of 'COLUMN()' to 'COLUMN()-1' in the first two OFFSET functions.
Another possibility is a mismatch between the Data table name in the formula and the actual name of the Data table.
Beyond those possibilities, I'd need to see either the document or screen shots of both tables and a copy of the actual formula as you've entered it.
Regards,
Barry