Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 3, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
Carol asked if there is a way in Excel to create drop-down lists so that the second drop-down list is dependent on the selection made in the first drop-down list.
There are actually a number of different ways you can accomplish this task, ranging from simple formulas to complex macros. The method you choose depends, most directly, on the type of drop-down lists you want to create. There are actually three types of drop-down lists you can create in Excel:
Rather than discuss how to create dependent drop-lists based on each of these types of drop-down lists, I'll choose to examine the simplest method, which will suffice for most people. If you use the INDIRECT function along with data validation lists, it is quite easy to get the result you want:
Figure 1. The Data Validation dialog box.
=INDIRECT(A3)
That's it. Now people can only select from your major list if they are using one of the cells specified in step 6, and from the appropriate dependent lists if they choose one of the cells in step 11.
There are lots of different variations of this approach (using data validation). You can find more information on some of these approaches by visiting these Web pages:
http://www.ozgrid.com/download/ (download the MatchingLists.zip file) http://www.contextures.com/xlDataVal02.html
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2972) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Creating Dependent Drop-Lists.
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