[Solved] Populate game data with a list

[ssnewbie]

i'm an absolute novice/noobie when it comes to messing with spreedsheets but i've had a fixation in trying to create a spreadsheet to track information for a game I play. Long story short I won't to be able to have a dropdown list with a number of options and each of those options would populate information automatically into other cells in the document. i figured out how to make the dropdown list but trying to ask google gemini for help on the formula needed resulted in an error 509. I'd appreciate any help on the matter. if it helps option 1 would populate a result of 100 into a block option 2 would populate a result of 134 and option 3 would populate 169.

[robleyd]

Well error 509 means Operator is missing, for example, "=2(3+4) * ", where the operator between "2" and "(" is missing ,but you haven't given any hint of the formula you are using, no-one can help specifically.

As I understand your question, you want to populate a certain cell - let's say C2 - with a specific value dependent on the value of another cell - let's say A2 - which is selected from a drop down list.
A simple slution would be to use a lookup table to determine the correct value for C1; the attached sample spreadsheet gives a very simple example based on your three mentioned values.

ssnewbie01.ods

(9.2 KiB) Downloaded 58 times

Some useful reading for newcomers to spreadsheets:
[Tutorial] Ten concepts that every Calc user should know
[Tutorial] Absolute, relative and mixed references
[Tutorial] VLOOKUP questions and answers
and others in Calc Tutorials

[Villeroy]

i'm an absolute novice/noobie when it comes to messing with spreedsheets

No, you can't succeed in my honest opinion.
You want to mimic a database on a spreadsheet, which is possible with several tradeoffs, but still a sophisticated undertaking because it implies that to stretch the capabilities of spreadsheet software. Apart from that, you still need some theoretical concepts about database design because any software dealing with tables presumes certain design concepts.

[MrProgrammer]

I'm an absolute novice/newbie when it comes to messing with spreadsheets …

This forum is not a good place for a novice to learn how to use spreadsheets, nor a good place to help you with building a spreadsheet from scratch. It helps people with some knowledge solve problems in spreadsheets they have already created. If you are a novice you should borrow one of the many Introduction to Spreadsheets type of book from your local library. Spreadsheet basics have not changed much in three decades. Any book, even one written 20 years ago for Excel, will help you gain this knowledge. At a basic level, all spreadsheet applications are pretty much the same. You need to learn basics like Number versus Text, Copy versus Move, Cell format versus Value, Absolute Address versus Relative Address, etc. The Ten Concepts tutorial, linked earlier, mentions some of it, but at only 3300 words the tutorial can't provide the detail that a spreadsheet book will. As with many things, the devil is in the details.

… to track information for a game I play.

If this is a Role-playing game, we have dozens and dozens of topics about that. As a beginner, you should read them to see what others have done. In the Calc forum type RPG in the Search this forum box by the New Topic button. Spreadsheets are good at doing tedious calculations for you. But they will not be very useful for determining an optimal strategy during play.

I want to be able to have a dropdown list with a number of options and each of those options would populate information automatically into other cells

You need the VLOOKUP function, tutorial above, but it will be a mistake to use that without reading a book on spreadsheets first. Any decent book will cover that function, since it is very important.

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