Hi Scott

would have helped if you posted your actual formula too
however, i'm guessing you're only using 3 of the 4 parameters .. the 4th,
when omitted defaults to TRUE which means that you want an APPROXIMATE match
.... to get an EXACT match include either FALSE or 0 as the fourth parameter
=VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array, col_index_num,FALSE)

Cheers
JulieD

"Scott" wrote in message
...
I'm having a problem with a VLOOKUP formula that's not working and I could
use some help. Here's an example of my problem.

File 1:
A1 (name): Bob Weir
B1 (sales): $100,000

File 2:
A1 (name): Bob Weir
B1(state): California
C1(vlookup to File 1): I'm trying to bring in the $100,000 from File 1 for
Bob Weir.

Here's the troubleshooting I've done so far:
1.I've used the =Len formula to make sure that there are no spaces after
the
name and each cell has the same number of characters.
2.I've tried to use both the General and Text format for both A1 cells and
the VLOOKUP doesn't work with either format.
3.When I take cell A1 and Copy - Paste Special - Values cell A1 from
File
1 to cell A1 of File 2, then my VLOOKUP works. Unfortunately, this isn't a
solution because I have a lot of rows and the names are not in the same
order
in the two files.

From the troubleshooting I've done, it looks the values aren't really
equal
in the various A1 cells but they appear identical. Any thoughts on how to
fix
my VLOOKUP? Thanks in advance for your help.

-Scott