Numbers - Changing data in one sheet to be reflected in another sheet

Using NUMBERS, I want to change data in one sheet and have those changes automatically be changed on another sheet. For example in sheet one I have two columns with the first name and surname

SUSAN SMITH this name is also reflected on the second sheet. However Ms Smith marries and wishes to use her married name Harrison. I only wish to change it in Sheet one and have the other sheets containing her name to be automatically updated. Is this possible?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.7

Posted on Jan 10, 2025 6:40 AM

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Camelot

Level 9

58,311 points

Posted on Jan 15, 2025 1:28 PM

Yes, and no...

Let me explain.

In order to do this you're going to have to have a table of everyone's original and married name - not impossible

Then, on your main sheet, you're going to have to perform a lookup. The issue is that you can't just lookup 'Susan' since there may be multiple 'Susan's - how is the sheet supposed to know which Susan you're referring to?

This is an age-old problem, and one of the key reasons why most companies assign you (and know you by) an account number rather than name. Account numbers can be unique. Names are not.

If you know that any given row on your table relates to person ID 12345, then you can lookup, real time, what person 12345's name is - married or not), but this gets massively more complicated if you try to use a non-unique, mutable key (such as a name) as your key.

So, ultimately, if this is a big problem for you, you may want to consider restructuring your data.

Or, if it's an intermittent thing, a one-time Find & Replace may be sufficient.

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