View Single Post
  #2   Report Post  
Posted to microsoft.public.excel.worksheet.functions
Ron Rosenfeld
 
Posts: n/a
Default vlookup with date formats

On Tue, 24 Jan 2006 07:45:03 -0800, "Enron"
wrote:

Hi, I put a vlookup formula searching for a data corresponding to a date in a
table. It is only working with a european date format (dd/mm/yyyy) although
my regional settings are set to US. Once I change (on both tables) the date,
the vlookup doesn't work anymore ... really strange

Did someone already see that ?

Thanks


Excel stores dates as numbers. Frequently, the kind of problem you report is
due to some or all of the dates being stored as text strings rather than
numbers.

VLOOKUP will only work if all the dates are stored as numbers (or proper dates)
or if all the dates are stored as text strings.

If you select a cell with a date, and cannot change its format, then it is
likely a text string.

You can also check by =ISTEXT(cell_ref) For proper dates, this should return
FALSE.

I would suggest getting all your dates into the proper date format.
--ron