Vlookup - what I am doing wrong?

[Lee733]

Cell C13 has the formula =Vlookup(B13,F5:AQ12,1) - correct result of 8 is returned,
Cell C14 has the forumla =Vlookup(B14,F5:AQ12,1) - incorrect result of 8 is returned. It should be 7. Why is this not working?

 

[Joe4]

Trying to match column B (with numbers in the thousands) to column F (with single digit numbers) does not seem right at all.
Can you explain, in English, what you are trying to match?

 

[Lee733]

Trying to match column B (with numbers in the thousands) to column F (with single digit numbers) does not seem right at all.
Can you explain, in English, what you are trying to match?

Cell B13 has 3585 in it.
Cell I12 has 3585 in it.

The vlookup formula found 3585 in the range I had in the formula and C12 returned the correct 8.

The same does not occur in C14 when I am looking for 2265 , which is in L11, within the range in my formula. It should return 7 but it returns 8.

 

[PaulOPTC]

Can you please post a bit of your sheet? Ill try and figure it out.

 

[Lee733]

Cell C13 has the formula =Vlookup(B13,F5:AQ12,1) - correct result of 8 is returned,
Cell C14 has the forumla =Vlookup(B14,F5:AQ12,1) - incorrect result of 8 is returned. It should be 7.

 

[Joe4]

Do you understand how VLOOKUP works?
Let's look at your formula:

=Vlookup(B13,F5:AQ12,1)

You match the value from the first agument (the value in cell B13) to the the first column of your second argument (which is F5:F12).
The value in cell B13 is 3585. Do you see any value resembling anything close to that in the range F5:F12?

I think what causes you to sometimes get the correct value is that you are using the approximate match argument in the fourth argument, so it is just "luck" that it is sometimes correct.
Also, if you are using the approximate match, I believe that the column you are matching on (column F) should be sorted in ascending order.

Your formula does not seem to be structured properly.
See: VLOOKUP function

 

[Lee733]

No, they are numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, with 8 being the largest number.

Do you know of a formula I can use instead without sorting?

 

[Joe4]

No, they are numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, with 8 being the largest number.

What is?
What is that "No" in reference to?

Do you know of a formula I can use instead without sorting?

I do not know because your formula does not make sense.
Please explain, in plain English, exactly what you are trying to match on and what you want to return.
It is very difficult to try to figure out what you are trying to do when the formula does not appear to be correct.

 

[Lee733]

I got using the match formula. Thank you for your time.

 

[Joe4]

I got using the match formula. Thank you for your time.

Can you please post the formula you used that worked?
If we see the formula you used, we can probably tell you why the VLOOKUP did not work.
You can then also mark the post as the solution.