How to group excel items based on custom rules?

Question

I have a set of data (webmaster tools search queries) which is in excel with the following header:

Query | Impressions | Clicks | Date

Sample google spreadsheet here.

I want to add in an extra column called Category and categorize all the queries according to custom rules that will search for a string on column A. Ex:

if A2 contains the string 'laptop' then write 'laptop' on the category next to it

So far I have tried a formula to do this but I'm not sure this is the easiest way. Also, if there are lots of categorization rules the formula gets really long and unmanageable.

=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("laptop",A2)),"laptop",
   IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("notebook",A2)),"laptop",
   IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("iphone",A2)),"phone",
   IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("galaxy s",A2)),"phone",
"other")))

Can you suggest a better way of doing this where I can have the rules in one sheet in this format:

Query_contains | Category_is

where Query_contains would be the string that needs to be matched in column A from the initial sheet the and Category would be the value that needs to be filled into column D.

Answer 1

Ok, I changed your sheet a bit....

Supposing all your data was in cells A1:C9, then you had the following table in cells F1:G5

Search_For:    Category:
laptop         Laptop
iphone         Phone
galaxy         Phone
notebook       Laptop

Now, in cell D2, put in the following formula:

=IFERROR(INDEX(G$2:G$5,MATCH(TRUE,ISNUMBER(SEARCH(F$2:F$5,A2)),0)),"other")

And enter it as an array formula Meaning, once you enter it, hit CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER.

You can then drag the formula from cell D2 down and it should give you the desired results (and you can, of course, increase the list in columns F & G as necessary).

Hope this does the trick!!

Answer 2

This small macro assumes your data is in Sheet1 and your rules are in worksheet rules in columns A & B:

Sub catagorize()
    Dim s1 As Worksheet, s2 As Worksheet
    Dim N1 As Long, N2 As Long
    Set s1 = Sheets("Sheet1")
    Set s2 = Sheets("rules")
    N1 = s1.Cells(Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Row
    N2 = s2.Cells(Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Row
    For i = 2 To N1
        v = s1.Cells(i, 1).Value
        For j = 1 To N2
            If InStr(1, v, s2.Cells(j, 1).Value) > 0 Then
                s1.Cells(i, "D").Value = s2.Cells(j, "B").Value
            End If
        Next j
    Next i
End Sub