Question : "Pop Chart" style position changes - how to calculate in Excel

Hi, my problem is this.
I have a column of data for day 1. In that column of data Apples are position 1, and Pears at position 2, and aubergines at position 3. On Day 2 Pears are at position 1 and Apples at position 2. Pears have gone up 1, and Apples have gone down 1. In position Three are oranges. So Oranges are new. So I need to record those changes in position for day to compared to Day 1. At the moment I am writing them in and doing them by hand. E.g. for the Day 2 column I writing in the cell adjacent to Oranges "New". I know there should be a way in Excel to do this, but I am wondering if someone could shed some light. The number of rows will always be the same over the days. The calculation is always, "what's changed today compared to yesterday"? Any help, much appreciated. Paul

Answer : "Pop Chart" style position changes - how to calculate in Excel

Assuming day 1 is in column A and day 2 in column B, a formula like
=IF(ISERROR(MATCH(B2,A:A,0)),"New",MATCH(B2,A:A,0)-ROW())
should help. You can use the iferror function instead in excel 07.

Attached file contains setup.

Thomas

25134055.xls (25 KB) (File Type Details) 

sample