vlookup does not always work

Most of the time I am able successfully implement the
vlookup function. However, there are so few times when
everything looks good, I know there is a matching
reference, but my result is #N/A when I set the Range
lookup to FALSE. I have checked the field formats and
they both seem to match.

Any thoughts as to what is happening?

Thanks,
Pablo

Just because they seem to match does not mean they match,
there can be [not visible] things like spaces html characters etc..

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Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

"Pablo" wrote in message
...
Most of the time I am able successfully implement the
vlookup function. However, there are so few times when
everything looks good, I know there is a matching
reference, but my result is #N/A when I set the Range
lookup to FALSE. I have checked the field formats and
they both seem to match.

Any thoughts as to what is happening?

Thanks,
Pablo

I can't say I've got your answer but I've had problems
with the same. Usually due to formatting, and usually
because the formatting change I made did not take. I have
found I sometimes have to make the format change follwoed
by an f2 (edit) to edit the cell in question. only after
the edit does the formatting change stick. This is common
when dealing with a imported text file and the Text vs
General format selected during the import wizard needs to
be corrected.

Hope this helps
Rich
-----Original Message-----
Most of the time I am able successfully implement the
vlookup function. However, there are so few times when
everything looks good, I know there is a matching
reference, but my result is #N/A when I set the Range
lookup to FALSE. I have checked the field formats and
they both seem to match.

Any thoughts as to what is happening?

Thanks,
Pablo
.

"Pablo" wrote...
Most of the time I am able successfully implement the
vlookup function. However, there are so few times when
everything looks good, I know there is a matching
reference, but my result is #N/A when I set the Range
lookup to FALSE. I have checked the field formats and
they both seem to match.

Any thoughts as to what is happening?

If your lookup value were, say, 3.33 and one of values in the first column of
the loolup table were calculated as =10/3 formatted to 2 decimal places, it'd
appear you had a match when in fact you wouldn't. If you set VLOOKUP's 4th
argument to 0 or False, you need *EXACT* matches. Approximately equal isn't
sufficient. If you believe your lookup value (say, X99) matched a value in the
first column of the lookup table (say, A7), then in a blank cell enter the
formula =X99=A7. If the result is True but your VLOOKUP returns #N/A, then
there's a problem. However, if the result is False, you don't have an *EXACT*
match, so you'd need to figure out an acceptable alternative. More often than
not it'd require explicitly rounding the values in the first column of the
lookup table to a common number of decimal places and rounding the lookup value
to the same number of decimal places *OR* sorting the lookup table in ascending
order in its first column and omitting VLOOKUP's 4th argument.

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hi,
it is not clear what exactly ur problem is,
but vlookup function will definetly work if u use trim
function in case of text,becoz vlookup will not recognize
the same text if there is different spacing b/w the same
text.
i think this will help u

regards
nishant


-----Original Message-----
Most of the time I am able successfully implement the
vlookup function. However, there are so few times when
everything looks good, I know there is a matching
reference, but my result is #N/A when I set the Range
lookup to FALSE. I have checked the field formats and
they both seem to match.

Any thoughts as to what is happening?

Thanks,
Pablo
.