vlookup prob with all #n/a's

[Janis]

What am I not gettin?

I have a list in column A. I want to find an exact match on column B if
there is one.

I have the vlookup formula in column C. In column C all I get is #n/a.
There are some matches so something is wrong with my formula.

Please help.

tia,

 

[Jim Thomlinson]

Assuming you have the formula correct then it could be an issue with your
source data. Check for blank characters at the end of each item in the list.
If your list was a download from another system very often you get blank
characters padded at the end.

 

[Janis]

Sorry, I forgot to give you the formula:
=VLOOKUP(A3,A:B,2,FALSE)

It does not appear to be right and I'm having trouble understanding the
vlookup function. Something should be matching.
thanks,

 

[Gord Dibben]

Where is your "lookup" value?

What is your "Lookup Table"?

Which is your "column index" number?

Show us your formula please.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Janis]

I copied the lookup values to column A on sheet1. I copied the cells I want
to see if there is a match in to column B on sheet1. I copied this formula
to column C where I want to see if there is a match or not.
Am I supposed to have a value in column D or can I only have 3 columns? to
make it work or should I just use a lookup instead of a vlookup? It seems
impossibly hard to do the vlookup directly on the sheets themselves so I
copied the columns to a new sheet. I still can't get it to work. I think
the vlookup is not very intuitive. Unfortunately I have all these sheets I
have to find matching values. I would like to understand it.
thanks,

 

[Janis]

Why do I have to have a lookup table? Why can't I just have a lookup column?