Vlookup Character limit in 2003

[Mtyler]

Hi

I'm using Excel 2003 and have noticed that my vlookup returned values are limited to 255 characters (Note, not the lookup_value).

My vlookup is across two different workbooks and the limit still applies when both workbooks are open.

Is there any way to avoid this problem? Some of the cells that I want to be returned have up to 1000 characters.

Thanks

Matt

 

[texasalynn]

Are you sure it's not bringing back the entire string? You will only see the first 255 in the cell, but if you were to copy/paste special values then the entire contents would show in the formula bar

 

[pliskers]

Unless I'm mistaken, I encountered this in the past when I was working in an older version of Excel (I now use 2007), and got around it by using a MATCH/INDEX combination formula instead of a lookup.

 

[Mtyler]

Are you sure it's not bringing back the entire string? You will only see the first 255 in the cell, but if you were to copy/paste special values then the entire contents would show in the formula bar

Doesn't appear to be the case, but I'll try the index/match suggestion below which sounds promising - thanks Pliskers

 

[Mtyler]

I still get the same limit with Index/match when the source document is not open. Maybe it's one of the limitations of Excel 2003?

 

[RoryA]

It is a limitation when the source is closed.