Try something like this:

For ParNumbers in Col_A and a lookup table in Columns C:D

Set all of the values in the Col_C of the lookup table Text.

Then use a formula like this:
B1: =VLOOKUP(A1&"",B:C,2,0)

Appending an empty string to the numeric P/N's converts them to text.
Appending an empty string to the text P/N's has no impact.

Does that help?

***********
Regards,
Ron

XL2002, WinXP-Pro


"crafty_girl" wrote:

I'm seeing LOTS of posts that are close to this issue, but nothing quite the
same.

I'm using VLOOKUP to look at a part number column that's being imported. It
all comes across in text format b/c some part numbers are alphanumeric (ex:
6H) and some are numeric (ex: 30). Nothing I've seen so far addresses the
issue b/c if I change the entire column to text I get #N/A back for cells in
the column that should show a number in them, (ex:30). If I change the entire
column to numeric format I get the same for cells that contain alphanumeric
data (ex: 6H).

Does anyone know of a solution that might address, seeing how there are two
different types of data formats in the same column being referenced?!!