I like both of your suggestions but I wouldn't hold my breath hoping for
those to be implemented.

If you use excel 2007 you can use the IFERROR function to trap #N/A:

=IFERROR(VLOOKUP(A1,F1:G10,2,0),"")

Note that this will trap *all* errors, not just #N/A.

Much better than the pedantic:

=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(A1,F1:G10,2,0)),"",VLOOKUP(A1,F1: G10,2,0))

Another shorter alternative:

=IF(COUNTIF(F1:F10,A1),VLOOKUP(A1,F1:G10,2,0),"")

As far as the left lookup....

=INDEX(E1:E10,MATCH(A1,F1:F10,0))



--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"Alan Perkins" wrote in message
...
I have two suggestions to improve VLookup:

1. Add an optional parameter that provides a result if the Vlookup returns
NA so that you don;t need to wrap it in an If (ISNA...

2. Make the column offset capable of negative values so that you can
offset
to the left of the reference column.

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