You can't lookup a blank cell but you could use this

=IF(A1="","",VLOOKUP(A1,{"Staff",1;"Contract",2;" ","3"},2,0))


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Regards,

Peo Sjoblom


"nussbaum" wrote in message
...
I have 3 options, cell A1 contains the words Staff,Contract, a range of
other
texts or it may be blank
Can Lookup return values for each?
I have
= LOOKUP(A1,{"Staff","Contract"," ",""},{1,2,3,""})
but this is not returning the expected values...I suspect I do not
understand the necessary order required for this formula ....please advise
Thank you