vlookup and R1C1 HELP!

I`m trying to get the vlookup function to work in R1C1 and can`t make it go.

I have tried =VLOOKUP(-40_18,R2C1:R33840C14,4)
=VLOOKUP(-40_18,C1:C14,4)

and since the sheet is numerically indexed...=VLOOKUP(-40_18,1[2]:14[33840],4) and a lot of different variants. What am I doing wrong?

The sheet started out as general format but since I thought the minus sign
in the identifier might be messing it up I changed it to text (the one column), the rest is still general. I`ve been looking at syntax in "help" but I must be overlooking something. Also I have excel inside/out but it is too advanced for me. Any suggestions..........Plain

Originally Posted by plain

I`m trying to get the vlookup function to work in R1C1 and can`t make it go.

I have tried =VLOOKUP(-40_18,R2C1:R33840C14,4)
=VLOOKUP(-40_18,C1:C14,4)

and since the sheet is numerically indexed...=VLOOKUP(-40_18,1[2]:14[33840],4) and a lot of different variants. What am I doing wrong?

The sheet started out as general format but since I thought the minus sign
in the identifier might be messing it up I changed it to text (the one column), the rest is still general. I`ve been looking at syntax in "help" but I must be overlooking something. Also I have excel inside/out but it is too advanced for me. Any suggestions..........Plain

The following format seemed to work for me:

=VLOOKUP(R[-2]C[-1],R[-2]C[3]:R[7]C[8],4,FALSE)

Or you could use for =VLOOKUP(-40_18,C1:C14,4) that you have above:

=VLOOKUP(-40_18,R[1]C[3]:R[14]C[3],4,FALSE) or some such thing.

Scott