Vlookup and match part of text in a cell

[Joe Phan]

Hi, I am trying to match text in an array that may not be exact match in the
cell and return the value in the adjacent column. example: look up "today"
in the array that has "today is the 3rd" and then return the value next to
this. Seems simple, but I can not work this out. I 've looked through the
discussions and can not seem to find the appropriate answer.

 

[ozgrid.com]

=VLOOKUP("Today*",$A:$D,2,FALSE)

 

[Max]

You could try something fuzzy like this:
=VLOOKUP("*"&E2&"*",B2:C100,2,0)
where lookup value is in E2, eg: today
the lookup col is col B and the return is from col C
Any good? hit the YES below

 

[T. Valko]

For this type of lookup you can use wildcards.

=VLOOKUP("*today*",A2:B10,2,0)

Or, using cell to hold the lookup value:

D2 = lookup value = today

=VLOOKUP("*"&D2&"*",A2:B10,2,0)