thanks...between all of this, I got it working. I found a problem: I had
"inserted" the row that I was entering the Vlookup forumla for, and it
inherited the validation from the adjacent rows. Once I got rid of that, as
well..things went swimmingly...thanks for all the help!!!

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

Format the cell as general
then select that cell
hit F2 then enter.

Excel will see that it's a formula.

PatK wrote:

Hey, I have had this problem numerous times...looking for any pointers:

I create a vlookup like:

=vlookup(A2,Detail!D2:G907,4,FALSE)

All paramters "exist". When I hit enter after typing the function, it acts
as if the field is simply a 'text' field. In other words, it does not resolve
the vlookup. It just acts as if the formula was a textual value that I
wanted in the field.

In the past, when this has occurred, I have tried making sure the Cell is
formatted as "general," etc, and in so doing, the problem had resolved, but
not this time. Any idea why Excel would not actually resolve a function like
this? I can handle an error, but I cannot handle "nothing."

HELP!

Pat

--

Dave Peterson