vlookup question??

[coltheplumb]

Hi guys i have this vlookup formula

=VLOOKUP(DM21,$DK$3:$DL$5,2)

and this is the range

<TABLE style="WIDTH: 96pt; BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=128 border=0><COLGROUP><COL style="WIDTH: 48pt" span=2 width=64><TBODY><TR style="HEIGHT: 12.75pt; mso-height-source: userset" height=17><TD class=xl66 style="BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt solid; WIDTH: 48pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; HEIGHT: 12.75pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" width=64 height=17>d</TD><TD class=xl65 style="BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt solid; BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; WIDTH: 48pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" width=64>9</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 14.25pt; mso-height-source: userset" height=19><TD class=xl67 style="BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt solid; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; HEIGHT: 14.25pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" height=19>m</TD><TD class=xl68 style="BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt solid; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent">8</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 16.5pt; mso-height-source: userset" height=22><TD class=xl69 style="BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt solid; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt solid; HEIGHT: 16.5pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" height=22>p</TD><TD class=xl70 style="BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt solid; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent">7</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
now i have found that if i put any other letter other than d,m,p in cell DM21 it still comes back with a number, either 9,8 or 7??? anyway of stopping this ?

Cheers

Colin X

 

[dave3009]

If you just want to lookup for exactly these values then you can look for an exact match

=VLOOKUP(DM21,$DK$3:$DL$5,2, 0)

 

[coltheplumb]

Thank you very much , you lot are just sooooooooooo quick and clever

Cheers

Colin X