"Frank" wrote in
message ...

Why is it that often this formula doesn't work?
Do I need to clean up cells, or do they need to be in the same format?


Frank

What do you mean by "doesn't work"? What does happen? Do you get an error or
an unexpected result?
Try posting the formula you are using (or an example).

The data does need to be of the same format as the lookup value. So, for
example, the number 123 is different from the text string "123".

Also, in text strings, spaces are important but may not show up easily. For
example, "Cats and dogs" is different from "Cats and dogs" (the latter
having two spaces between the first two words).

Have you looked at the definition of VLOOKUP in Help?
VLOOKUP(lookup_value,table_array,col_index_num,ran ge_lookup)
The last (optional) parameter, range_lookup, determines whether you require
an exact or approximate match. If you specify FALSE, only exact matches will
"work". However, if you specify approximate (the default, if parameter
range_lookup is omitted, or TRUE), the data must be sorted in ascending
order. This has potential for giving confusing results.