Cell displays formula not value

[Rhino_Dance]

I have a 'vlookup' formula in a cell. All the elements in the formula are valid and it should return any result (including an error). But the cell only displays the formula itself. My immediate guess was that through a series of random and unluck keystrokes I had invoked TOOLS / OPTIONS / VIEW / FORMULAS (checked). That's not the case though.

Here is the formula:

=vlookup(M2,CA_NV_LK,2)

Been at EXCEL a long time and this one's truly a headscratcher. Using XL 2003. Thanks.

 

[DonkeyOte]

Check formatting of cell, set to General and recommit the formula.

HTH

 

[PaddyD]

formula was entered into a cell that had already been formatted as text.

one option - select the cell(s) with text 'formulas', go to edit| replace - replace = with = (has the effect of re-entering the formula in a way that makes excel recognise it's a formula)

 

[DonkeyOte]

Thanks for the tip Paddy, I was not aware of the replace = with = to recommit, fix.

 

[Rhino_Dance]

Thanks. I figured out the general cause of this. This was a downloaded excel sheet of data from a govt site on the web so it came with some sort of twist in the formatting.

 

[PaddyD]

"I was not aware of the replace = with = to recommit, fix."

Just another string to the bow when you finally get that job <!-- / message --><!-- sig -->