LOOKUP using only part of a string?

Is it possible to use one of the LOOKUP functions using only part of a string (rather than a cell's full content) as the lookup_value?

I have a column of cells each containing a six-digit number. Each pair of digits within this number represents data stored elsewhere. I'd like to have my formula read the first two digits and return the matching data from the lookup_vector. I'd like another formula to read the second two digits and return the matching data from a different lookup_vector.

It doesn't seem possible to use use a LOOKUP argument that searches the lookup_value as a string in order to use only part of that string as the criterion.

I suspect there's a clever combination of suitable functions to achieve this, but I haven't managed to figure them out -- any suggestions will be most welcome.

you could post a sample workbook.

without seeing you're data, try this, assuming what you are looking for is in A1...
=VLOOKUP(VALUE(LEFT(A1,2)),D8:E10,2,FALSE) for the 1st 2 numbers
=VLOOKUP(VALUE(MID(A1,3,2)),D8:E10,2,FALSE) for the middle 2 numbers
=VLOOKUP(VALUE(RIGHT(A1,2)),D8:E10,2,FALSE) for the last 2 numbers

I assumed the data you are searching in wads in the range D8:E8 - adjust as needed

Yes, I thought of doing so (and will), but that brings me to the second part of the challenge. The data in the lookup_vector is not simply the two-digit number contained within the lookup_value. It too is a longer string -- so I will need to specify both the part of the string to be used in the lookup_value and the part of the string in the look_up vector to be matched to the lookup_value. Confused?

I hope the attached will make it clear.

Excellent! All I have to do now is apply the same LEFT-MID-RIGHT to the lookup_vector to achieve the desired match.

you could also try index/match , something like this.

=INDEX('2'!$C$3:$C$53,MATCH("*"&LEFT(H8,2)&"*",'2'!$B$3:$B$53,0))