Hi, Im not exactly what you call an expert with excel and was wondering how you extract data from one sheet to another. I have one spreadsheet that has all my current data in and a text file which contains a list of words in that i want to extract from the excel sheet but want to get the whole row that that word is present in. because they are sizes of folders. it excel looks like this Column A Column B JDPLIBOP7 14077788 kb so need to extract the row with JDPLIBOP7 in . Text file just has list of folders .example JDPLIBOP7 JD_gbpoy fruit everything in the text file ,i want from the excel sheet (rows) Cheers

To the best of my knowledge there is no way to get a text file to extract data from any other source. However, you can use Excel's Import Wizard to import your text file into a new worksheet and then using the VLOOKUP function you can extract your data from one Excel spreadsheet to the other. HTH Bryan

Thanks Bryco, I understand the import wizard but it doesnt really help me. I guess a sophistcated query on the file may get me the data. whats the Vlookup??. is that just the find function?? basically every word that is on the text file i want to match with the excel sheet and extract that row or copy that row into another excel sheet. sort of like a very advanced find .

Yes, use the import wizard as it will allow you to correctly format your text file as an Excel spreadsheet. Using the VLOOKUP function/formula will match all your data as you are desiring. The VLOOKUP function was designed to perform the task you are wanting to automate. It would be difficult to explain the use of this function. It is not that difficult and is the most useful function used in Excel. Use Excel's Help file to understand it's use. Since you are unfamiliar with it you will be surprised how powerful it is once you understand it's use. If after reading Excel help on it feel free to post any unsolved questions that arrise to this post and I will gladly assist. I am tracking this post for you. Best regards and happy formulating, Bryan

I think Excel is the wrong application for the job. Your problem as I understand it is that you have a file (A) (Excel) consisting of file names and sizes and another file (B) (text) consisting of file names. Your want to create a file or listing that contains the rows of file A that are in file B. An easier method would be to have a data base with the file name and sizes and select/flag those records which have the same file names as B. You then display the selected records. A problem I see is if the file name in B does not occur in A. Is this an acceptable exception?