The first thing that comes to mind is that you are not using the fourth and
final parameter to VLOOKUP. It must be False. E.g.,

instead of
=VLOOKUP(1,A1:C10,2)
use
=VLOOKUP(1,A1:C10,2,FALSE)


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft Most Valuable Professional
Excel Product Group
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com
(email on web site)



"BillFitz" wrote in message
...
vlookup is not finding reference numbers from one worksheet to another in
same excel file. I have tried copying formats from lookup column to
reference
column in data worksheet. I have made lookup range absolute by using $
prefixes