Vlookup Help

[alisyed]

I'm using a simple vlookup. The values I want results for (on the very left of my array) apparently do not have the same format as the ones I am looking up.

If I want them to produce a result, I have to copy and paste as a value in the array and only then will my vlookup will work.

It's not a formatting issue - because I've checked formats and they're both General.

Is there a way to make them comparable? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Bryan Hessey]

Is there a reason you would not simply Copy the whole column, and Paste Special, Values back over itsself?

ie, is the array changeable? - and if so how is the data created?

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I'm using a simple vlookup. The values I want results for (on the very left of my array) apparently do not have the same format as the ones I am looking up.

If I want them to produce a result, I have to copy and paste as a value in the array and only then will my vlookup will work.

It's not a formatting issue - because I've checked formats and they're both General.

Is there a way to make them comparable? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[systematic]

I had a similar problem just today. The value I was looking up was formatted as text - even though Excel indicated it was a number in the Format>>Cells menu.

There is probably a simpler way to fix the problem...but I used a working cell =VALUE(CellReference) and used that cell for the vlookup instead...

Hope this helps. But yes....the common sense approach is copy/paste values....wish I had thought of that

/systematic

[alisyed]

yeah, i cant just copy and paste as values since the data is not in the same order...

[Gord Dibben]

Simply formatting the cells as Number or General is not sufficient if Excel
believes they are text.

Select an empty cell formatted as Number and Edit>Copy.

Select your range of data and Paste Special>Add>OK>Esc to coerce the data to
Numbers.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP


On Thu, 6 Apr 2006 06:36:44 -0500, alisyed
<[email protected]> wrote:

>
>I'm using a simple vlookup. The values I want results for (on the very
>left of my array) apparently do not have the same format as the ones I
>am looking up.
>
>If I want them to produce a result, I have to copy and paste as a value
>in the array and only then will my vlookup will work.
>
>It's not a formatting issue - because I've checked formats and they're
>both General.
>
>Is there a way to make them comparable? Any help would be greatly
>appreciated.

Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP