No, the 1E10 is the lookup_value.

1E10 = 10,000,000,000 (10 billion)

The way that LOOKUP works is if the lookup_value is greater than any value
in the range then it returns the *last* value that is less than the
lookup_value. To insure that we get the *last* number in the range we use an
arbitrary huge number like 10 billion. If you we working with numbers that
big then we just use an even bigger number for the lookup_value like 1E100.
I don't even know what that value is called! <g

Consider this example. Suppose you were working with bowling scores. The
highest possible bowling score is 300. In this case we know for certain what
kind of numbers we're dealing with so we don't need a huge arbitrary
lookup_value like 1E10. We just need a number that is guaranteed to greater
than 300. So, we can use 301.

=LOOKUP(301,A:A)

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"BrendaN_at_Welke_Customs"
wrote in message ...
This formula works very nicely! I also realize the "1E10" may be
substituted
with however many rows are to be searched; very interesting. Thank you
so
much for teaching me something new.

"T. Valko" wrote:

This will return the last numeric value in column A:

=LOOKUP(1E10,A:A)

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"BrendaN_at_Welke_Customs"
m wrote in message
...
I want to select the last entry in a column, and insert this value into
a
formula elsewhere. A new number is added daily to this column. There
are
empty cells throughout the column. Thanks!