Vlookup formula not working

[CRISTYJOHNSTON]

I have a spreadsheet with 4 tabs. I have created a drop down list in my 4th tab. I would like to auto populate a cell on Tab 1 with the data from tab 4.

Tab 1: cell A8 is where I would like the auto populate to fill in.

User selects a choice from a drop down on Tab 1 (cell C8) and then cell A8 auto-fills based on their selection.

My VLOOKUP formula does not even give me an "N/A" at this point.

=VLOOKUP(A8, Campus Directory!$A$2:$B$43, Campus Directory!2, FALSE)

 

[Joe4]

Welcome to the Board!

The third argument looks incorrect. It should just be a number.
If you are just trying to return the value from column B, use 2 instead of Campus Directory!2

 

[CRISTYJOHNSTON]

Thank you Joe4 - I tried that as well with no luck. My formula just stays as typed in cell A8 - it does not prefill "N/A" or anything else....Perhaps there is something wrong with my drop-down table?? My table (on Tab 4) includes all campuses in column A, and their Campus Code in column B. So back to Tab 1, the user should select the drop down with the campus name (cell C8), and it should auto-populate the campus code in cell A8.

 

[philwojo]

I think the problem is you have a circular reference, you are trying to lookup data from Tab-1 in cell A8 on your 4th tab and then populate A8 on Tab-1. To start with that will be blank, so it won't be able to find anything other than blank data.

I also agree with Joe, your formula doesn't look right for that 2nd argument, Joe means it should look like this:

[COLOR=#333333]=VLOOKUP([/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000]A8[/COLOR][COLOR=#333333], Campus Directory!$A$2:$B$43,2, FALSE)[/COLOR]

Also, the A8 in red in your formula is what I"m speaking of as that is the formula you have in A8 on Tab-1, correct?
I think you might want that A8 to Be C8 to use your drop-down on Tab-1.