Using a value returned from a vlookup for further calculations

**olsmith** · 04-19-2013, 07:43 AM

I have a table of Time (format 13:00), average of time n and time n+1, and Barometric pressure at time 1. I am using the formula '=VLOOKUP(INDEX('Barometric Pressures'!A2:A34,MATCH('Station 103'!D2,'Barometric Pressures'!B2:B34,1)),'Barometric Pressures'!A2:C34,3)' to return the barometric pressure of a time on another sheet. It returns the correct pressure but when I try to use that pressure in further calculations I get #VALUE on the cell for the calculation. Is there a way to extract this and only return the number to the calculation?

Thanks

**martindwilson** · 04-19-2013, 07:49 AM

you get #value errors if there is a mismatch eg you are trying to use text in a mathematical calculation eg =1*a
what value is returned by the lookup, is it a real number,has it got spaces after it that sort of thing or what is the other part of the calculation using

**olsmith** · 04-19-2013, 08:36 AM

Thanks, your post led me to the solution. I had cut and pasted the barometric values from a web page. Even though I had formatted the cells as number(2) they were still being seen as cut html text. Once I went in and typed them they return the number I need and the calculation is correct.