just did a vlookup that returned a value error. wasn't expecting that so checked my ranges and referencing. all good. to check, did a quick "this cell = that cell" and the result is true. so the lookup value exists in the lookup array. the only thing i can think it might be is that the lookup value in a vlookup is limited to a certain number of characters. seems to be happening to those lookup values with more than 300 characters in the cell. might even be limited below that number. that is just the shortest of the values i am using. any suggestions?