Lookup number in range variable

Question

i am working on a table in which three header cells have been merged into one:
table-1
–––apple––pear––peach–
2|–A–B–C|D–E–F|G–H–I
3|–J–K–L|M–N–O|P–Q–R
4|–S–T–U|V–W–X|Y–Z–a
from another table there are two cells i use that look up the value in the first table
table-2
–––––y––––z–––––––––––
2|–apple––2–– =formula
=HLOOKUP('table-2'::z2,'table-1'::$A$1:$J$4,MATCH('table-2'::y2,'table-1':: $A,0),0)
this returns A as expected, in essence 'table-1::b2'. my problem is how do i specify the columns underneith 'table-1::apple' so i can get to the values of B and C ('table-1::c2' and 'table-1::d2')
is their a way to put the range of apple into a variable like in excel?–or some other way to look up the other values with the information i have?-or do i just need a better way to rearrange my headers?
thank you for any advice

Answer 1

If I understand correctly your problem, your friend is the OFFSET() function which may return a calculated range of cells.
Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE lundi 9 mars 2009 18:38:48)