VLOOKUP partial match help

Hey guys,

I'm trying to perform a partial match with VLOOKUP without success.

Worksheet 1

"Trying to find" Helper Column	"Trying to find" Results Column
A1 - Contains "helpmefindthis"	B1 - Contains "#N/A"

Worksheet 2

Partial Match Search Column	Partial Match Results Column
A1 - Contains "findthis"	B1 - Contains "1"

I'm trying to return "1" contained with cell B1 of 'Worksheet 2' by searching for "findthis".

Here's the formula I'm trying within B1 of 'Worksheet 1':

=VLOOKUP("*"&A1,'Worksheet 2'!$A:$B,2,FALSE)

I've also tried specific target cells like:

=VLOOKUP("*"&A1,'Worksheet 2'!$A$1:$B$1,2,FALSE)

Thank you in advance for your help...

It won't work like that no matter how you change the range (argument 2 in the formula) because "*"&A1 is looking for a string that ends in "helpmefindthis" and that doesn't appear in Sheet2, hence the N/A.

If you're using wildcards then the string you're using to return a value needs to be a substring. i.e. "*"&this is a substring of findthis, but "*"&helpmefindthis is not.

BSB

Of course! Silly me ... thank you