Creating an Excel Table of Components By Product From a List Using the TEXTJOIN Function By David Hager

The listing of recipes for process blending is difficult, since each recipe can contain a different number of components. Therefore, the usual listing of this recipe information is as shown in columns A and B. From the sample table, defined names are given where arange is the list of blended compounds and brange is the list of components. In this case:

arange=Sheet1!$A$2:$A$25

brange=Sheet1!$A$2:$A$25

The following formula was used to make the unique list of compounds in column E.

=INDEX(arange,MATCH(0,INDEX(COUNTIF($E$2:E2,arange),0,0),0)) in E3.

Then the formula is copied down until #N/A appears in a cell. Cells containing #N/A are then deleted.

I found this formula at Oscar’s great Excel site. See:

http://www.get-digital-help.com/2009/03/30/how-to-extract-a-unique-list-and-the-duplicates-in-excel-from-one-column/

Now that the unique list is in place, a comma delimited list of components can be created in column F.

Place the following formula in cell F3 and fill down.

=TEXTJOIN(“,”,,IF(arange=E3,brange,””))

This array formula compares the value in E3 to each value in arrange and if there is a match, the corresponding value in brange is returned to the array. The TEXTJOIN function converts the array to a string using comma as the delimiter.

You can download the file here.

 textjoin1

Remember again, that you have to have the Excel version included in Office 365 in order for the TEXTJOIN formula to work.