Multiple Columns & VLookup??

I am trying to pull employee ids from once excel sheet to another.
The only problem is that the names appear in two columns in both sheets.
first last id
While this okay for instances where there is only 1 person with that last
name, obviously it won't do the job where there are multiple individuals with
the same last name.
Currently, i am using this formula =IF(ISERROR(VLOOKUP(A1,
'[everyone]everyone!$B:$G, 3, false)),"- -",VLOOKUP(A1077,
'[everyone]everyone '!$B:$G, 3, false))
Can I get V lookup to match two columns?? or do I have to combine the
columns in some way? If so, how can I make it appear sensible (last, first).
thanks for the help

First you will need to combine the columns. Insert column C
in C use the formula

=A1 & " " & B1

You will probably need to do this on both the sheets. Then use the column C
to lookup the values.

Alok

"Tara C." wrote:

> I am trying to pull employee ids from once excel sheet to another.
> The only problem is that the names appear in two columns in both sheets.
> first last id
> While this okay for instances where there is only 1 person with that last
> name, obviously it won't do the job where there are multiple individuals with
> the same last name.
> Currently, i am using this formula =IF(ISERROR(VLOOKUP(A1,
> '[everyone]everyone!$B:$G, 3, false)),"- -",VLOOKUP(A1077,
> '[everyone]everyone '!$B:$G, 3, false))
> Can I get V lookup to match two columns?? or do I have to combine the
> columns in some way? If so, how can I make it appear sensible (last, first).
> thanks for the help