Validation Dropdowns - 2 columns?

[darsha]

I need to prepare a xls 'template' for users to populate with data. Essentially, each sheet in the workbook will correspond to a table in a SQL Server database.
The data will imported into SQL server via a Visual Studio project.

In the database, a number of tables have columns containing ID values which link to other (lookup) tables.

If I define a 2 column dynamic range (not sure how to do do the dynamic bit) is there any way I can define data validation dropdowns to display the second column in the range (descriptive text) whilst storing the first column(integer value) in the cell?

[HansV]

You can do that kind of thing in Access, but not in Excel.

You could have the validation dropdown display (and store) the ID value, and use a lookup formula in the cell next to it to display the corresponding description, or the other way round.

If you want a dropdown with two columns, you'd have to use a combo box from the Control Toolbox (ActiveX controls), but that is not a very attractive solution.

[darsha]

I though that might be the case :( thankyou