ArrayFormula SWITCH SEQUENCE - google-sheets

My apologies, no link to a spreadsheet (its a big one). Was hoping an expert could give some anecdotal advice why the first formula works and the second does not.
Specifically, I can narrow it down to SEQUENCE function (if I remove SEQUENCE there is no #VALUE! error). All range names are columns except for MaxOneTerms which is a number.
Following using IF works fine.
=ARRAYFORMULA(
IF(NOT(ISNUMBER(OneStep)),,
TRIM(TRANSPOSE(QUERY(TRANSPOSE(
IF(SEQUENCE(1,MaxOneTerms,1)>OneTerms,,
IF(OneType="Geo",
ROUND(OneStart*OneStep^SEQUENCE(1,MaxOneTerms,0)),
IF(OneType="Ari",
ROUND(OneStart+OneStep*SEQUENCE(1,MaxOneTerms,0)),
"OneType-ERR"
)
)&","
)
),,100000)))
)
)
The following with SWITCH (replacing IF for readability) returns #VALUE! for each value.
=ARRAYFORMULA(
IF(NOT(ISNUMBER(OneStep)),,
TRIM(TRANSPOSE(QUERY(TRANSPOSE(
IF(SEQUENCE(1,MaxOneTerms,1)>OneTerms,,
SWITCH(OneType,
"Geo",ROUND(OneStart*OneStep^SEQUENCE(1,MaxOneTerms,0)),
"Ari",ROUND(OneStart+OneStep*SEQUENCE(1,MaxOneTerms,0)),
"OneType-ERR"
)&","
)
),,100000)))
)
)
The following with SWITCH, but without SEQUENCE executes (but obviously not the expected values).
=ARRAYFORMULA(
IF(NOT(ISNUMBER(OneStep)),,
TRIM(TRANSPOSE(QUERY(TRANSPOSE(
IF(SEQUENCE(1,MaxOneTerms,1)>OneTerms,,
SWITCH(OneType,
"Geo",ROUND(OneStart*OneStep),
"Ari",ROUND(OneStart+OneStep),
"OneType-ERR"
)&","
)
),,100000)))
)
)
Edit 1: (linked added below).
Sheet "SeriesX" column "S" row 3. Please ignore the rest.
I've tried variants in Sheet "SeriesX2" F3,G3,H3
google sheet

Related

Google Sheet multiple matches in uneven data structure

I got this "table" (page raids) and want to do function formating for highlight duplicates (yellow).
Google Sheet
In this case there is match in 2 strings (dark blue):
Name1
Gunslinger
I already try functions VLOOKUP, Match, Filter, countifs and Quary (dont know how it works...) with Index function, but nothing seems work as I want ...
VLOOKUP and Match only gives first value.
Filter doesnt work on this strucker or I dont know how to use it in this case (I know how it works in normal table)
Can someone tell me what function conbination to use that can be put in Function formating ?
Formating for each row:
Example: =IF(B3>0;IF(B4<1490;TRUE;FALSE);FALSE)
ECT.
After some searching and testing, I came up with this:
=ArrayFormula(SUM(IFERROR(FIND(B2&B3;MID(CONCATENATE((TRANSPOSE($B$2:$I$33)));SEQUENCE(LEN(CONCATENATE((TRANSPOSE($B$2:$I$33))));1;1;1);len(B2&B3)))=1)*1))>1
Still need to make the functions more tidy (picture 2 and 3).
See if this is what you are looking for?
Conditional formatting with Custom formula in Range: A2:H:
=LAMBDA(NAME,OR(A1=NAME,A2=NAME,A3=NAME))("Gunslinger")
or do you means you want to highlight only duplicates?
If that is the case, you may try this formula:
=LAMBDA(DATARANGE,
LAMBDA(FLAT,
{{"Team","Duplicate"};{UNIQUE(FLAT),BYROW(UNIQUE(FLAT),LAMBDA(NAME,COUNTIF(FLAT,NAME)>1))}}
)(
QUERY(FLATTEN(
BYCOL(DATARANGE,LAMBDA(C,
BYROW(C,LAMBDA(R,
IF((ROW(R)+1)/4=INT((ROW(R)+1)/4),R,"")
))
))
),"SELECT Col1 WHERE Col1 IS NOT NULL",0)
)
)(A2:H)
This formula returns an array of unique Names with checking if there are Duplicates in the given datarange.
Combine this with the 1st formula should be able to highlight repeated data sets from your table.
Solution for 2 criteria matching:
The formula inside the image form the table of unique match results,
use that result with OR(), XLOOKUP(), OFFSET(), INDEX() as below for the final formula to put into the custom formula in conditional formatting.
=LAMBDA(RESULT,
LAMBDA(NAME,DUP,KEY,
LAMBDA(KEY_M2,KEY_M1,KEY_P1,
OR(
XLOOKUP(KEY_M2&"&&"&KEY_M1,NAME,DUP,FALSE),
XLOOKUP(KEY_M1&"&&"&KEY,NAME,DUP,FALSE),
XLOOKUP(KEY&"&&"&KEY_P1,NAME,DUP,FALSE)
)
)(IFERROR(OFFSET(KEY,-2,0),""),IFERROR(OFFSET(KEY,-1,0),""),IFERROR(OFFSET(KEY,1,0),""))
)(INDEX(RESULT,,1),INDEX(RESULT,,2),A2)
)(
LAMBDA(DATARANGE,
LAMBDA(FLATCLASS,
{{"Name","Duplicate"};{UNIQUE(FLATCLASS),BYROW(UNIQUE(FLATCLASS),LAMBDA(NAME,COUNTIF(FLATCLASS,NAME)>1))}}
)(
QUERY(FLATTEN(
BYCOL(DATARANGE,LAMBDA(C,
BYROW(C,LAMBDA(R,
IF((ROW(R)+1)/4=INT((ROW(R)+1)/4),IF(R="","",INDEX(C,ROW(R)-2)&"&&"&R),"")
))
))
),"SELECT Col1 WHERE Col1 IS NOT NULL",0)
)
)($A$2:$H)
)

mapping vlookup for each element of splitted list in google sheets

This question is also answered here:
Get a vlookup of a cell after split in Google sheet
but not marked as corrected answer, and cannot make it work.
Goal : I want to apply a vlookup function to a split function, so that I can search for corresponding values (found by the vlookup) for each token obtained from a string.
Consider this sheets:
// Sheet 'veggies'
A
apple, pine, tree
pine
// Sheet 'themes':
A
B
C
apple
8
theme1,theme2
tree
3
theme2
pine
1
theme1,theme3
I want to:
split cells of column A of 'veggies' by commas, so to have tokens
vlookup for the C column in 'themes' sheet, by using the index of tokens, for all of them
As approach I tried to first retrieve the frequences of tokens in column B, sheet 'themes', and cannot understand what my formula is doing:
=ARRAYFORMULA( VLOOKUP( split(A2;",");'themes'!A$2:D;2;FALSE))
This formula only get the frequency from column be for the first token, while for others will only report N/A saying could not find a value, but it is clearly there.
Any help?
Am I on the right track ?
P.s. if one would like to offer use of query , like in the other SO answer, please help me to break down what it does.
ARRAYFORMULA( VLOOKUP( split(A2;",");'themes'!A$2:D;2;FALSE))
Your formula works. But when splitting by comma , there's a extra space left over in all the elements from the second element. So, when
apple, pine, tree is splitted, it becomes apple, pine, tree(note the extra space prefix). To fix, you can simply add a space to the split as well:
=ARRAYFORMULA( VLOOKUP( split(A2;", ");'themes'!A$2:D;2;FALSE))
this should work if you want the results in one cell.
=ARRAYFORMULA(TEXTJOIN(", ";TRUE;IFERROR(VLOOKUP(SPLIT(A2;", ";0);themes!A:C,2,0))))
Use this formual
=ArrayFormula(LAMBDA(v,
IF(v="",,{v,SPLIT(VLOOKUP(v,themes!A2:C,3,0), ", ",1)}))
(FLATTEN(IF(A2:A="",,SPLIT(A2:A, ", ", 1)))))

Multiple search criteria in google sheets

I am trying to make an automated attendance sheet
I have 2 google sheets,
the first one is the responses from a google form that has the name of the students and the date they attended, so it will have duplicated name and duplicated dates.
The second sheet have the names of the students on the left and the dates on the top.
I am trying to automate the second sheet to put "P" under the date that the student was present and "A" when his name is not in the first sheet with that date.
Best i could do was adding an extra column with the letter "p" in the first sheet and using dget to search for the name and date and output the "p" from the extra column, which only worked for one of them for some reason.
=DGET('ATTENDANCE DATE !B:D, "AT", {"NAME", "DATE"; $H$4,12})
I tried to use query also but no luck.
=QUERY('ATTENDANCE DATE'!B7:D,"
SELECT D
WHERE B MATCHES'"&$H9&"' AND C MATCHES '"&I$2&"'
")
Sorry if my question was confusing.
A good solution is to use 4 formulas to do exactly what you like. Each formula has a function:
B1 formula: generates the headers for all the dates with data.
B2 formula: generates the sub-header with the day of the week for each date.
A3 formula: gets all the names.
B3 formula: gets the attendance values for all users. This is the most complexs one.
Here is how it looks:
A
B
1
< fromula 1 >
2
name
< formula 2 >
3
< formula 3 >
< formula 4 >
Before starting there a few things to note
Questions and more information
Please, if at any point you don't understand something, let me know (I'd like this to be a nice resource on how to do formulas).
Also, at the end I left links to all the formulas I use, so you can see what they exactly do.
Locale
I'm using the English locale. this means that I'm using commas , to separate arguments (instead of ;) and array literals (instead of \). if you have function formatting errors, look into it, as this could be the issue.
Sheet names
I've changed the Sheet's names as they are very long and made the formulas harder to follow. Fell free to replace the names on the formulas back to the original name. Here is how I named them:
ATTENDANCE RESPONSES FROM GOOGLE FORM ⟶ Att
LATE/ABSENT RESPONSES FROM GOOGLE FORM ⟶ Late
Formula format
Almost all formulas require "ARRAYFORMULA" to show their full effects. I won't be adding it everywhere as it could get confusing. If you'd like to see what a formula part (doesn't have an equal sign =) does, go to a sheet and do:
=arrayformula(
<paste formula part>
)
Also, parts that are in <some name> are not literal, and represent the code named in between the brackets.
Formula 1
It can be split into 2 formulas:
Get the ordered unique dates
Add a Reason column for each date
Get the dates
The first thing you can use is UNIQUE to get only the unique ones and SORT to sort them. You also need to get them from both sheets as there could be a day that everyone is absent or another where everyone came. SORT(UNIQUE({Att!B2:B; Late!B2:B})) does most of the trick but you also get empty cells. because of that we add a filter. So together:
SORT(UNIQUE(FILTER({Att!B2:B; Late!B2:B}, {Att!B2:B; Late!B2:B}<>"")))
Adding Reason
The problem of it is that the number of column is not fixed (it grows over time). A good workaround is to concatenate the date with a separator and Reason and then split it again. This only works for columns and generates a 2 column, result. Then it can be moved into a single column by using FLATTEN.
FLATTEN(SPLIT(
<previous part>&"␟Reason",
"␟"
))
I'm using ␟ (Symbol For Unit Separator) as the separator as it indicates exactly what it is and is very-very unlikely to be included in the sheet.
If you use that you'll see that the date is shown in numbers. To Change that we'll format the date before concatenating and splitting:
FLATTEN(SPLIT(
TEXT(
<previous part>,
"dd/mmm/yyyy"
)&"␟Reason",
"␟"
))
Now we need to make it a row instead of a column. There is a function that does that: TRANSPOSE.
Complete formula 1
=ARRAYFORMULA(
TRANSPOSE(FLATTEN(SPLIT(
TEXT(
SORT(UNIQUE(FILTER({Att!B2:B; Late!B2:B}, {Att!B2:B; Late!B2:B}<>""))),
"dd/mmm/yyyy"
)&"␟Reason",
"␟"
)))
)
Formula 2
To add the day of the week we need to format the date with TEST and the format ddd, which is the short-version of the name of the day of the week (Mon, Tue, etc).
TEXT(B1:1, "ddd")
Note though that if the value formatted is already text, it will pass it. Because of that, we need to only do this for the columns with dates. One way that I found is to get the even-numbered columns. TO do that, it's a combination of COLUMN (get the number of the column), MOD (get the module), and IF:
IF(MOD(COLUMN(B1:1),2)=0, <formatted text>, "")
This does what we want but we now get "Sun" on columns that there is nothing. The reason is that empty cells are being interpreted as zeros. Because of that we need to add another condition: the cell is not empty.
IF((MOD(COLUMN(B1:1),2)=0)*(B1:1<>""), <formatted text>, "")
To do the logical and I'm using the product because the formula AND would return a single value ("eats" the passed array).
Complete
=ARRAYFORMULA(
IF(
(MOD(COLUMN(B1:1),2)=0)*(B1:1<>""),
TEXT(B1:1, "dddd"),
""
)
)
Formula 3
The third formula is the simplest and should be self-explanatory:
=ARRAYFORMULA(
SORT(UNIQUE(Att!A2:A))
)
Formula 4
This is the final formula. This formula is based on using VLOOKUP to know the value for each person and date.
Making a table to VLOOKUP into
The way of doing that is to generate a key by joining both values into a single text value and set the other values on the other columns. To prevent problems we add a separator to make sure that there are no combination that will be equal. Here is how the table to lookup into looks like:
< name >␟< date >
< status >
< reason >
< name >␟< date >
< status >
< reason >
< name >␟< date >
< status >
< reason >
⋮
⋮
⋮
The key for the first sheet is:
Att!$A$2:$A&"␟"&Att!$B$2:$B
To add the other 2 columns (Present and an empty one) we use a similar trick to Formula 1: we add a separator to split it later on. Because we already are using ␟ for the key, we need another one. In the same block there is another meant for this cases: ␞ (Symbol For Record Separator).
Att!$A$2:$A&"␟"&Att!$B$2:$B&"␞"&"Present"&"␞"&""
or joining the literal text:
Att!$A$2:$A&"␟"&Att!$B$2:$B&"␞Present␞"
This need to be filtered, as there are empty values, which we don't want. We'll use FILTER to do exactly that:
FILTER(Att!$A$2:$A&"␟"&Att!$B$2:$B&"␞Present␞", Att!$A$2:$A<>"", Att!$B$2:$B<>"")
For the second sheet, we do something similar but including the other columns:
FILTER(Late!$A$2:$A&"␟"&Late!$B$2:$B&"␞"&Late!$C$2:$C&"␞"&Late!$D$2:$D, Late!$A$2:$A<>"", Late!$B$2:$B<>"", Late!$C$2:$C<>"")
Note that I've added more conditionals.
This needs to be vertically joined. This can be done with an array literal:
{
<Attr formula>;
<Late formula>
}
Then we need to split the rows to expand into the multiple columns:
SPLIT(
{
FILTER(Att!$A$2:$A&"␟"&Att!$B$2:$B&"␞Present␞", Att!$A$2:$A<>"", Att!$B$2:$B<>"");
FILTER(Late!$A$2:$A&"␟"&Late!$B$2:$B&"␞"&Late!$C$2:$C&"␞"&Late!$D$2:$D, Late!$A$2:$A<>"", Late!$B$2:$B<>"", Late!$C$2:$C<>"")
},
"␞"
)
Using VLOOKUP
Now that we have where to lookup into, we can do it like so:
VLOOKUP(
A3:A&"␟"&C1:1,
<lookup table>,
2,
false
)
Note that the key that we are looking up is the one we generate. Also, this will get the values only below the dates (will fail otherwise).
Adding the reason
Since we know that the cells which are for the reason fail (since <name>␟Reason shouldn't exist), we can use IFERROR to detect it:
IFERROR(
<vlookup status>,
<vlookup reason>
)
The formula for reason is almost identical to the one for status. The only changes are that we lookup into the third column (instead of the second) and we look one to the left:
VLOOKUP(
A3:A&"␟"&OFFSET(C1:1, 0, -1),
<lookup table>,
3,
false
),
Using OFFSET instead of a range ensures that they have the same size.
Final error management
This formula fails when the key doesn't have name or date (which is outside the table or there that entry missing). For that case we add another IFERROR:
IFERROR(
<formula>,
""
)
Complete formula
=ARRAYFORMULA(
IFERROR(
IFERROR(
VLOOKUP(
A3:A&"␟"&C1:1,
SPLIT(
{
FILTER(Att!$A$2:$A&"␟"&Att!$B$2:$B&"␞Present␞", Att!$A$2:$A<>"", Att!$B$2:$B<>"");
FILTER(Late!$A$2:$A&"␟"&Late!$B$2:$B&"␞"&Late!$C$2:$C&"␞"&Late!$D$2:$D, Late!$A$2:$A<>"", Late!$B$2:$B<>"", Late!$C$2:$C<>"")
},
"␞"
),
2,
false
),
VLOOKUP(
A3:A&"␟"&OFFSET(C1:1, 0, -1),
SPLIT(
{
FILTER(Att!$A$2:$A&"␟"&Att!$B$2:$B&"␞Present␞", Att!$A$2:$A<>"", Att!$B$2:$B<>"");
FILTER(Late!$A$2:$A&"␟"&Late!$B$2:$B&"␞"&Late!$C$2:$C&"␞"&Late!$D$2:$D, Late!$A$2:$A<>"", Late!$B$2:$B<>"", Late!$C$2:$C<>"")
},
"␞"
),
3,
false
)
),
""
)
)
Final touches
The final result is something like this.
After that you can simply add formats to your taste. You can also add conditionals ones to more easily see the result.
References
MOD (Google Editors Help)
SPLIT (Google Editors Help)
TEXT (Google Editors Help)
IF (Google Editors Help)
IFERROR (Google Editors Help)
FILTER (Google Editors Help)
UNIQUE (Google Editors Help)
SORT (Google Editors Help)
TRANSPOSE (Google Editors Help)
FLATTEN (Google Editors Help)
ARRAYFORMULA (Google Editors Help)
VLOOKUP (Google Editors Help)
OFFSET (Google Editors Help)
I've completed a not-so-neat solution for you, starting on Row10 in the 'AUTO ATTENDANCE' sheet. It's divided into 4 parts:
The formula in cell D10 auto-populates Row10 with dates and empty cells in between:
=SPLIT(JOIN("|REASON|",SORT(UNIQUE({'ATTENDANCE RESPONSES FROM GOOGLE FORM'!$B$2:$B;'LATE/ABSENT RESPONSES FROM GOOGLE FORM'!$B$2:$B}))),"|")
Row 11 gets the day of the week from row 10 (if the cell above it contains a date:
=IF(ISDATE(D10),TEXT(D10,"dddd"),)
Cell C12 gets all unique names from both response sheets (auto-populates the name column):
=SORT(UNIQUE({'ATTENDANCE RESPONSES FROM GOOGLE FORM'!$A$2:$A;'LATE/ABSENT RESPONSES FROM GOOGLE FORM'!$A$11:$A}))
Cell D12 onwards gets the form responses and does the auto-attendance:
=IF($C12<>"", IF(ISDATE(D$1), IF(IFERROR(QUERY('ATTENDANCE RESPONSES FROM GOOGLE FORM'!$A$2:$B,"select A where A = '"&$C12&"' AND B = datetime '"&TEXT(D$1, "yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss")&"'"), "noresult")=$C12, "PRESENT", IFERROR(QUERY('LATE/ABSENT RESPONSES FROM GOOGLE FORM'!$A$2:$D, "select C where A = '"&$C12&"' and B = datetime '"&TEXT(D$1, "yyyy-mm-d hh:mm:ss")&"'"), "NO RESPONSE")), IFERROR(QUERY('LATE/ABSENT RESPONSES FROM GOOGLE FORM'!$A$2:$D, "select D where A = '"&$C12&"' and B = datetime '"&TEXT(C$1, "yyyy-mm-d hh:mm:ss")&"'"), )), )
The cells with yellow background contain formulae, the ones with green background do not contain formulae but will be auto-populated as the forms get more responses. The single cell with red background (C11), you'll have to write manually ;) Hope this solves your issue!

How to find the first cell in a row where value is not empty and check if the number is less or equal the number in other cell

I've got the following Google spreadsheet:
item have ready need1 need2 need3
A 1 2 1
B 1 2 1 1
C 2 2
etc
I want to fill ready column as follows:
find the first column in need1, ..., needN range which has a non-empty value
if the value found is less or equals the value in have column, set ready column to something cheerful (e.g. yes)
if the value found is larger than the value in have column, don't do anything
So above input, when processed should look like this:
item have ready need1 need2 need3
A 1 2 1
B 1 2 1 1
C 2 yes 2
For the first step I found a suggested solution, which did not work for me:
=INDEX( SORT( FILTER( D10:H10 , LEN( D10:H10 ) ) ,
FILTER( COLUMN( D10:H10 ) , LEN( D10:H10 ) ) , 0 ) , 1 )
(it returns #REF!) Not sure what's wrong with it or how to proceed to the next step.
Thanks in advance!
If you know how many need columns you have, or even just how many columns are on the sheet, this is quite straightforward. If not and you need to look at the entire row, you might have to redesign a bit to avoid a circular reference from the cell with the formula being part of that row.
Your second two steps are fairly simple either way - you want one of two results based on a condition, so you're going to want to use =IF. Your condition is that the 'need' number is less than or equal to the 'have' number, and you want it to say 'yes' if that's true, and nothing if it isn't. So, that gives us:
=IF(need<=have, "Yes", "")
The examples below assume your table above starts from cell A1 in the top left, and that the last column in your sheet is Z
Next we need to find 'need' and 'have'. Finding 'have' is pretty easy - it's just the number in column B.
Finding 'need' is slightly more complicated. You've got the right idea using INDEX and FILTER, but your formula seems a little overcomplicated. Basically we can use FILTER to filter out the blank values, and INDEX to find the first one that is left. First, FILTER:
The range you want to filter from is everything in the same row from column D to column Z (or whatever the final column is), and the condition you want to filter for is that those same cells are not blank. For the formula you're typing into cell C2, that gives us:
=FILTER(D2:Z2, D2:Z2<>"")
Next, INDEX: If you give INDEX an array, a row number, and a column number, it will tell you what is at that the cell where that row and column meet. As we've filtered out the blanks, we just want whatever is left in the first column of our filtered array, which gives us:
=INDEX(FILTER(D2:Z2, D2:Z2<>""), 1, 1)
Or, as we only have one row in our array, and INDEX is pretty smart, simply:
=INDEX(FILTER(D2:Z2, D2:Z2<>""), 1)
So to bring it all together, our final formula for cell C2 is:
=IF(INDEX(FILTER(D2:Z2, D2:Z2<>""), 1)<=B2, "Yes", "")
Then just drag the formula down for as many rows as you need. If your sheet is or becomes wider, just change Z to whatever your last column is.
When you don't know the size of a range, use functions row, column, rows, columns.
Simple formula
Here's an example of what you are looking:
=if(INDEX(FILTER(OFFSET(D2,,,1,COLUMNS(1:1)-column(D2)+1),OFFSET(D2,,,1,COLUMNS(1:1)-column(D2)+1)<>""),1)<=B2,"yes","")
this part of formula:
OFFSET(D2,,,1,COLUMNS(1:1)-column(D2)+1)
returns the range starting from given cell (D2) to the end of Sheet (COLUMNS(1:1)-column(D2)+1)
ArrayFormula
I suggest using ArrayFormula, it'll expand automatically:
=ARRAYFORMULA(if(REGEXEXTRACT(SUBSTITUTE(trim(transpose(query(transpose(OFFSET(D2,,,COUNTA(A2:A),COLUMNS(1:1)-column(D2)+1)),,COLUMNS(OFFSET(D2,,,COUNTA(A2:A),COLUMNS(1:1)-column(D2)+1)))))," ",", "),"\d+")*1<=OFFSET(B2,,,COUNTA(A2:A)),"yes",""))
It assumes that 'Item' column has no blank values.
The solution from #Max Makhrov works, and has the advantage of using a single formula for the whole column.
However, it assumes that all of your columns at the right from your ready column (D) will be need_ columns.
The solution from #dmusgrave also works, provided you remove the extra "=" before INDEX:
=IF(INDEX(FILTER(D2:Z2,D2:Z2<>""),1)<=B2,"Yes","").
However, it makes the same assumption, and also limits at column Z.
Such assumptions seem reasonable, but if they are limiting you, here's how you can have any number of need_ columns starting right of your ready column:
=IF(INDEX(FILTER(INDIRECT( "D"&ROW()&":"&CHAR(67+COLUMNS(FILTER($1:$1,LEFT($1:$1, 4)="need")))&row() ), INDIRECT( "D"&ROW()&":"&CHAR(67+COLUMNS(FILTER($1:$1,LEFT($1:$1,4)="need")))&row() )<>""),1)<=B2,"Yes","")
The idea is simply to replace D2:Z2 (in #dmusgrave's solution) by :
INDIRECT( "D"&ROW()&":"&CHAR(67+COLUMNS(FILTER($1:$1,LEFT($1:$1, 4)="need")))&row() )
Explanation: You start from D at current row, and you go until the last need_ column on the same current row.
CHAR(68) is D, to which you add the number of columns titled need.*, minus one (hence the 67).
Using the same logic, you can easily make your formula more robust/generic, such as not having the need_ columns starting right form the ready column, etc.

Google Sheets formula that returns all values for which multiple criteria in other columns apply

My problem, generally stated:
I need a formula that returns all the values in a specific column for which multiple criteria in other columns of the respective row apply.
My problem, specifically stated:
I would like a formula that returns all the values in Column A for which Column C is "John", Column E is "Apples", Column G is "Earth" and both Columns H and I are empty. See here for a simplified illustration of my problem with dummy data. The correct formula, dragged down, would output a list with the values "1", "4", and "14". If you'd like to try out some stuff in the linked spreadsheet, feel free to do so in a copy of the original sheet so others can see my original data/formulas.
What I've tried so far:
Simply filtering was not an option because the data is on a separate sheet within the same spreadsheet. I also knew VLOOKUP and INDEX/MATCH were not going to do what I wanted - VLOOKUP doesn't handle multiple criteria, and while the MATCH part of INDEX/MATCH can be turned into an array to specify multiple criteria, it only returns the first value for which all conditions are true, while I need all of them.
I then tried the following formula (Formula 1 in the linked spreadsheet):
=IFERROR(INDEX($A$2:$I, SMALL(IF(COUNTIF($K$2, $C$2:$C)*COUNTIF($K$3, $E$2:$E)*COUNTIF($K$4, $G$2:$G), ROW($A$2:$I)-MIN(ROW($A$2:$I))+1), ROW(A1)), COLUMN(A1)),"")
It worked like a charm, until I wanted to include the condition that both columns H and I should be empty. I tried this, but for some reason I don't understand it didn't work (Formula 2 in the linked spreadsheet):
=IFERROR(INDEX($A$2:$I, SMALL(IF(COUNTIF($K$2, $C$2:$C)*COUNTIF($K$3, $E$2:$E)*COUNTIF($K$4, $G$2:$G)*COUNTIF($K$5, $H$2:$H)*COUNTIF($K$6, $I$2:$I), ROW($A$2:$I)-MIN(ROW($A$2:$I))+1), ROW(A1)), COLUMN(A1)),"")
Then I tried to nest my first formula into an IF/VLOOKUP (Formula 3 in the linked spreadsheet):
=IFERROR(IF(VLOOKUP(INDEX($A$2:$I, SMALL(IF(COUNTIF($K$2, $C$2:$C)*COUNTIF($K$3, $E$2:$E)*COUNTIF($K$4, $G$2:$G), ROW($A$2:$I)-MIN(ROW($A$2:$I))+1), ROW(A1)), COLUMN(A1)),$A$2:I,8,FALSE)<>"","",INDEX($A$2:$I, SMALL(IF(COUNTIF($K$2, $C$2:$C)*COUNTIF($K$3, $E$2:$E)*COUNTIF($K$4, $G$2:$G), ROW($A$2:$I)-MIN(ROW($A$2:$I))+1), ROW(A1)), COLUMN(A1))),"")
This worked if I only asked for column H to be empty, but a) it is very unwieldy, b) it gives you blanks in the list it returns, which I do not want, and c) I could not get it to work for the condition that both columns H and I need to be empty using OR.
That's where I'm stuck, and I haven't come up with a good solution. Knowing this forum, I'm sure someone has an elegant solution I was not smart enough to find :)
I'm on phone so formating will suffer.
Create a new column on the left and insert the following into cell A2
=if(D2="John", if(F2="Apples", if(H2="Earth", if(I2="", if(J2="", B2,""), "" ), "" ), "" ), "")

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