I used this video to set up my budget tracker, but I ended up formatting your two data sets as tables (on separate sheets for easier organization). Now, instead of locked cell ranges, the formulas list my custom table/column labels as the lookup and result vectors so the paths are easier for me to understand. And because the paths don't change, I'll never have to add additional cells to the search ranges by hand if future purchases require me to add more recognized vendors to my list. :) Thanks for the great tutorial and a fun optimization puzzle!

Great, Thank you!

You are amazing. I have sifted through so many more complicated, nonworkable, less elegant solutions and finally found this. Perfect.

Thanks. I was looking for this one

Did you type the vendors or was there a fast way to adding them?

This is great but how do you get the matrix on the right ?

How do you lock the arrays? with the $ symbols. I tried typing them in manually but it doesn't work.

Excellent presentation. Thanks.

This is fantastic, saved me a ton of time. You are really good 👍

Thank you so much for posting this. I was looking for a way to categorize a large data set and this is by far the cleanest/simplest way that I have found to do it. You have saved me hours! Are you able to repost the link to the article you referenced? It is cut off in the description.

I tried it in one of my cases, but it is not working for me. I am writing the same formula, but it is not working. Please, how can I act so that it works in my case as well. With respect

This is perfect , exactly what I was looking for. I want to download my bank statement every month and auto categorize the categories in my budget tracker. This solves it perfectly.

This is really useful, thank you! What would you do if there was an exception, for example a video game store falls under the category entertainment normally, but is a gift this time? Would you just write it over the formula or is there a better way?