First of all:
<<<"The "2" is telling the formula what cell to reference in the table"
Just change "cell" to "column".

Next:
As a test, key in yourself a tech ID into A7.
In your datalist, do the same thing in any Column A cell, to make sure that
the data matches *exactly*.

Did your formula return the correct value from the second column of your
datalist?

Almost all problems of this nature are the result of mis-matched data.
Either leading or trailing spaces, or hidden codes that are part of imported
data.
--

HTH,

RD
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Please keep all correspondence within the Group, so all may benefit!
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"Sullycanpara"
wrote in message
news:Sullycanpara.2a7x1o_1151675707.8176@excelforu m-nospam.com...

Using the newest tip, and seeing that yes, I'll definatly need to do
that to search the entire database of tech info, so that is an
important step.

Problem is, is that I don't think the VLOOKUP is searching the "A"
column for the tech ID, and I'm not sure what I need to change to get
it to work. In my formula that I'm using, is for example:

=VLOOKUP(A7,Tech_List!A1:D100,2,0)

The A7 is the cell on the current page that is the tech ID that I want
to search for

the Tech_List! is telling excel to look on that sheet, A1:D100 is
telling it the range of cells to look in

The "2" is telling the formula what cell to reference in the table

The "0" is the false indicator

So am I understanding the formula correctly? If so, why does the
VLOOKUP not actually LOOK for the tech ID (in the A7 cell ref as per
the example), is there something else I need to add?

Thanks again for everyone's help, I couldn't have gotten to this state
of confusion without you! ;)

Tim


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Sullycanpara
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