Vlookup Problems

funky1968 · Apr 25th, 2002, 01:17 AM

Hi,
I consider myself to be reasonbly good with Excel, but just lately I have been having some problems with vlookups!
I currently have a simple spreadsheet with 2 worksheets.
The first worksheet has detailed information regarding my products.
I am trying to get the second worksheet to look up and return a certain column in the first.
When I enter the formula if I use a FALSE statement in the lookup it returns all #N/A's, if I dont use false it returns information (but not the correct information)
Can somebody please help me out here because it is very frustrating not understanding why it is doing this all of a sudden!
Thanks in advance.
Regards
Sara

jrnyman · Apr 25th, 2002, 01:35 AM

Can you post your formula? It sounds like the formula is actually working perfectly. The #N/A indicates all the information in the formula is valid (though not necessarily correct) and that it just can't find what you're looking for. Without the FALSE, VLOOKUP will simply search for the closest match, which often is inadequate for what users need. Please post the formula and we'll give you a hand.

Brian from Maui · Apr 25th, 2002, 01:37 AM

Sara,

Post your formula and a sample of your table

funky1968 · Apr 25th, 2002, 02:39 AM

Hi,
Thanks for your replies, I actually just fixed the problem, it was quite strange - I moved the column containing the lookup data and pasted it as the third column rather than the first and it worked???
In my formula I had given the lookup range as the entire spreadsheet so I dont know why it didnt work the first time!

Thanks anyway.

Sara

Brian from Maui · Apr 25th, 2002, 03:21 AM

Quote:

On 2002-04-25 01:39, funky1968 wrote:
Hi,
Thanks for your replies, I actually just fixed the problem, it was quite strange - I moved the column containing the lookup data and pasted it as the third column rather than the first and it worked???
In my formula I had given the lookup range as the entire spreadsheet so I dont know why it didnt work the first time!

Thanks anyway.

Sara

The lookup value is the first column, the second, third etc columns are which data is looked up. You probably had the lookup value other than the first column.

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Apr 25th, 2002, 01:17 AM	#1
funky1968 New Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Sara Posts: 2	Hi, I consider myself to be reasonbly good with Excel, but just lately I have been having some problems with vlookups! I currently have a simple spreadsheet with 2 worksheets. The first worksheet has detailed information regarding my products. I am trying to get the second worksheet to look up and return a certain column in the first. When I enter the formula if I use a FALSE statement in the lookup it returns all #N/A's, if I dont use false it returns information (but not the correct information) Can somebody please help me out here because it is very frustrating not understanding why it is doing this all of a sudden! Thanks in advance. Regards Sara

Apr 25th, 2002, 01:35 AM	#2
jrnyman Board Regular Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Boston, MA Posts: 105	Can you post your formula? It sounds like the formula is actually working perfectly. The #N/A indicates all the information in the formula is valid (though not necessarily correct) and that it just can't find what you're looking for. Without the FALSE, VLOOKUP will simply search for the closest match, which often is inadequate for what users need. Please post the formula and we'll give you a hand.

Apr 25th, 2002, 01:37 AM	#3
Brian from Maui Board Regular Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 7,743	Sara, Post your formula and a sample of your table

Apr 25th, 2002, 02:39 AM	#4
funky1968 New Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Sara Posts: 2	Hi, Thanks for your replies, I actually just fixed the problem, it was quite strange - I moved the column containing the lookup data and pasted it as the third column rather than the first and it worked??? In my formula I had given the lookup range as the entire spreadsheet so I dont know why it didnt work the first time! Thanks anyway. Sara