Excel dropdown with name value pairs

Question

I have a workbook with 2 worksheets.

"Sheet2" has two columns:

|    A    |      B        |
+---------+---------------+
|  code1  | description 1 |
|  code2  | Descr 2       |

Sheet1 has several columns, one of them (column D) is code. In this column, I need a "dropbox", which

• will show column Sheet2!B (the descriptions), and when the user selects one description
• will enter the code from the col: A.

It is possible to do without an additional helper column in Sheet1? (Excel 2010)

So, need something that is dead simple in HTML:

<select>
  <option value="code1">Description 1</option>
  <option value="code2">Descr 2</option>
</select>

This question probably is a duplicate - but I'm not sure - to How to create a dropdown with multiple columns in excel.

Added a screenshot for a more precise explanation: 

Answer 1

1. Define a range to use as the lookup value

2. Create the dropdown list

3. Paste in some code

---

Step 1: Setup Sheet2 like this and define a Named Range as _descrLookup:

( Highlight -> Right-Click -> "Define Name..." )

This is an optional step, but it just makes it easy to follow for Step 3.

---

Step 2: In Sheet1, create the dropdown using Data Validation and use the VALUES YOU WANT TO BE SHOWN IN THE DROPDOWN as the source. In this example it's Sheet2 A2:A4 (see above image):

( Data -> Data Validation )

---

Step 3: Add some VBA code to Sheet1:

( Right-Click the tab Sheet1 -> View Code )

Paste this into the code window for Sheet1:

Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
    selectedVal = Target.Value

    If Target.Column = 4 Then
        selectedNum = Application.VLookup(selectedVal, Worksheets("Sheet2").Range("_descrLookup"), 2, False)

        If Not IsError(selectedNum) Then
            Target.Value = selectedNum
        End If

    End If
End Sub