Asterisk Wildcard in IF statement problem

[shaft]

I am trying to use the following formula to return data in Excel 2010:

=IF( P150="5*",LEFT(P150,6),VLOOKUP(O150,Sheet9!$A$2:$S$1736,19,FALSE))

P150 = 500121VA-MA-45

I get an #N/A error because there is not a match in the lookup, but I would think that I would get a return for Cell P150 of 500121.

I use wildcards in MSAccess with no problem.

Can anyone please help?

[daddylonglegs]

Wildcards only work in certain functions (like COUNTIF,VLOOKUP,MATCH and others), when you say

=P150="5*"

That's TRUE only if P150 literally contains 5*

Try using LEFT, i.e.

=IF(LEFT(P150)="5",LEFT(P150,6),VLOOKUP(O150,Sheet9!$A$2:$S$1736,19,FALSE))

[shaft]

Thanks daddylonglegs, works like a charm. I have been struggling with this for a while.

Regards,
Shaft

[Cutter]

@ shaft

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