VSLOOKUP returns incorrect data

[evesdropper]

Hello,

I have a spreadsheet that contains: ID numbers, Athlete Names, Practice scores and averages. I want to use the averages to rank the athletes by highest average. I accomplished this by using the "Large" function without difficulty.

Now the problem. I want to put the athlete's name next to the average. This seemed simple enough but fails. I am at a loss on how to resolve this.

Layout
Column A: Unique ID
Column B: Athlete name
Column C-AN: Scores
Column AO: average score for athlete

Ranking column
Cell: D23 formula =LARGE(AO3:AO9,1)
Cell: D24 formula =LARGE(AO3:AO9,2)
etc, etc

Athlete name formula:
Cell: e23 formula =VLOOKUP(D23,A3:AO9,2,FALSE)
Cell: e24 formula =VLOOKUP(D24,A3:AO9,2,FALSE)
etc, etc

I expected this to show me the athlete name in Column B that corresponds with the score referenced in cell D23. I have tried everything I can think of or find related to vlookup and either get the wrong value returned or #N/A. I have removed the number formatting for the cells.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[FDibbins]

Hi and welcome to the forum

vlookup cannot (generally) "look behind" itself, meaning that the column that contains the criteria being searched for, must be the 1st column of the range.

A way around this is to use the INDEX/Match combo. Something like...
=index($B$3:$B$9,match(D23,range-containing-averages,0))

[evesdropper]

FDibbins,

Thank you! That example does exactly what I was trying to do.

[FDibbins]

Happy to help