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[email protected] duncan.edment@gmail.com is offline
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Default VLOOKUP, a table with text and numerics


Claus, many thanks for the speedy reply. I don't mean to be a pain, but could you assist in explaining what you just did there!

=VLOOKUP(LOOKUP(9^9,1*LEFT($J3,COLUMN(1:1))),MASTE R_FEES,2,0)
The 'LOOKUP' itself, LOOKUP(9^9,1*LEFT($J3,COLUMN(1:1))). If I'm reading it right, it is looking up the value '9^9' in the lookup vector '1*LEFT($J3,COLUMN(1:1))'. What does the '9^9' signify? To me it looks like 9*9*9*9*9*9*9*9*9, but it can't be. This value doesn't exist in the spreadsheet! Where / what are you getting it from?

The Lookup Vector of '1*LEFT($J3,COLUMN(1:1))', to me reads as: get the leftmost 'COLUMN(1:1)' characters from the value in the cell $J3. When I evaluate 'COLUMN(1:1)', it always returns '1'. So, it now says, "return the 1*1 characters from the left of the contents of cell $J3."

From my reading, we now have:

VLOOKUP(LOOKUP(387420489,1*1),MASTER_FEES,2,0)

I don't understand what the formula is trying to do? I could just say thanks for that and move on, however I'd really like to know what it's doing.

Duncan