Vlook up with no exact match

[Matis]

Vlookup with not exact matches.

Is there a way to lookup values where the matches are not exact. For example I have in Column A names, & column B I have serial numbers.

See below for illustration

Column A………. ColumnB
John James Smith 12589
George warrington 58968

Is there a vlook up formula that will give the result I want if I just input “John James” or “George war”

Thanks

 

[Jonmo1]

Use TRUE as the 4th Argument, and sort the data by Column A Ascending.

Hope that helps..

 

[Jonmo1]

Or if you can't sort the data...

=VLOOKUP("John James" & "*",A:B,2,FALSE)

 

[Matis]

Thanks Guys