Compare two columns of data and output contents of a third column when there is a match

Hi, I'm trying to develop a report which looks at two columns of part numbers which have a corresponding prices in a third column. The first column is imported and can vary from month to month. The second column is for reference and is static. This is the formula I've got which only partially works (don't know why it sometimes works and sometimes not??). Column C contains the prices and I want to match Column A with Column B
=INDEX(C1:C385,MATCH(A2,B1:B500,1)).

Been on this for nearly 3 days and if I had any, I'd have pulled my hair out by now!! Any help will be appreciated.

Many thanks

Will you please attach a sample Excel workbook? We are not able to work with or manipulate a picture of one and nobody wants to have to recreate your data from scratch.

1. Make sure that your sample data are REPRESENTATIVE of your real data. The use of unrepresentative data is very frustrating and can lead to long delays in reaching a solution.

2. Make sure that your desired results are also shown (mock up the results manually).

3. Make sure that all confidential data is removed or replaced with dummy data first (e.g. names, addresses, E-mails, etc.).

4. Try to avoid using merged cells as they cause lots of problems.

Unfortunately the attachment icon doesn't work at the moment, so to attach an Excel file you have to do the following: just before posting, scroll down to Go Advanced and then scroll down to Manage Attachments. Now follow the instructions at the top of that screen.

Please pay particular attention to point 2 (above): without an idea of your intended outcomes, it is often very difficult to offer appropriate advice.

Sorry - I don't see any attempt at a formula there. Is it the booking cost you want to search for? If so, where have the three manually entered results come from?

It's a very odd layout!

unfortunately reformatting column B Made no difference. Am I trying to do the impossible here??

No - attach the newly reformatted workbook.

Your layout is very odd, though.

Is this solved? It's marked as such, but your comments don't make this clear.

You need this:

=INDEX($C$2:$C$385,MATCH(A2,$B$1:$B$500,0))

NOT this:

=INDEX($C$2:$C$385,MATCH(A2,$B$1:$B$500,1))

0 = exact match
1 = approximate match

See post #17.

Yes, I can see everything in the thread!!!

No problem.