in vloolup use

=vlookup(Text(A1,"@"),rng,2,false)

--
Regards,
Tom Ogilvy

"Antonio" wrote in message
...
Line 1: Cells(1,1)=ticker

enters the value of ticker in cell A1.

If ticker = "1" AND format of A1 is General

line 1 results in A1=1 as a number NOT as text, even though ticker is a
string

Is there a way to force the writing of ticker in A1 as text, WITHOUT
CHANGING THE FORMAT OF A1 TO TEXT?

This is quite relevant for me because the VLOOKUP function won't work
otherwise and the spreadsheet where A1 is located cannot be modified.

I have tried CStr() but makes no difference. In a General format cell
Excel
changes a numeric string to a number.

Thanks,

Antonio