vLookup not working, have already done trouble-shooting

I am trying to do a very simple vLookup, but it will not work correctly. My range is on a different tab within the same workbook. I have cleaned, trimmed, tried my "key value" column as both numbers and as general. I didn't create the original sheet, so I've checked it for hidden formats, compatibility issues, etc.

My range is sorted ascending. The "key" is in the left-most column.

Currently, the "key" column in both sheets is formatted as numbers.

Excel is correctly interpreting "some" of the values and importing them into the first sheet correctly. However, Excel is NOT correctly interpreting some of the values and is returning "N/A".

I guess that is what confuses me. When I formatted the columns, I did so by clicking above the column and selecting the ENTIRE column. I did that for each column, so I don't understand why it correctly interprets some and then incorrectly interprets some.

This particular sheet is law enforcement sensitive, so I cannot post it "as is". I could possibly redact it. Or, if I have any law enforcement peeps out there, I could share it with you.

Anyone have any tips or tricks?

Thanks, Diane

check your columns with:
=ISTEXT() or =ISNUMBER() and you'll be know what is what and why correct/incorrect

I did

I swear this workbook is possessed.

Aaaah. I will try that. I swear this is still some hidden formatting somewhere. Thank you!

You may have hit on it, Sandy. It is saying that all of my values are Text; however, I've formatted them as Numbers with no decimal places. This is probably a really dumb question, but is there a formula to convert from text to number?

don;t use formatting from the ribbon. Excel should recognize your data: text aligned to the left, number aligned to the right. if something different you need to check this one value not whole column against additional space or something. it's hard to say soemthing more without seeing example excel file.