Help with Time? trying to vlookup a NOW() value in a text table...

[mickeygib]

I have an issue with a table containing text data showing a time in th
format 00:00, 12:15 etc. I want to display some text that relates to th
current time and have used NOW() to display the time in the same forma
(12:15 eg)

When I vlookup the NOW() value, it fails to match it to the text.

They look exactly the same, and I assumes that would be enough.

Is there any way to do it? Am I just being dumb?

Thanks in advance for any help

 

[Luke M]

Rather than try to force NOW() into a text value, and then correct format
from there, it would probably be easier to use the TIMEVALUE function to
convert your text data into actual times.

One other note though: NOW() brings in seconds, and your sample data appears
to only be hours and minutes. You may need to compare to:
=TIME(HOUR(NOW()),MINUTE(NOW()),0)

 

[RagDyer]

If I understand what you're saying, how can you expect to match a *volatile*
function (Now()) with a text value?
The Now() function changes every time the sheet calculates, and also
contains seconds.

Even if you place your sheet calcs on manual, you'll never get to a match.

 

[Gord Dibben]

NOW() is a volatile function.

You can never match NOW() to a static value.

12:15 will only be valid for a millisecond.........or less, I would
imagine.

Seeing it as 12:15 is a formatting display only

For help on how Excel stores dates and times see Chip Pearson's site.

http://www.cpearson.com/excel/datetime.htm#SerialDates


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP