Hi again

In further desperation, I saved the change to the formula (which still
generated odd behaviour), then rebooted. Everything works fine now!!! The
laptop is only 6 months old and had been turned on for about 6 hours. I
don't have any virus or malware (or didn't 3 days ago when I last scanned) -
but I'll check again.

Thanks for your help - it was reassuring to know that what I thought should
work, has done, and it seems to have resolved itself.

"Tosca" wrote in message
...
Hi Debra

Yes, the range is CezchRepublicColumn and no, there is no leading space!

As a matter of interest, I started a new workbook and set up a dummy
CzechRepublicColumn range and entered the formula into C3. It still
demonstrated the formula in the cell as well as the formula bar, despite
no apostrophe, leading space etc!!!

It's almost as if my version of Excel (2003) doesn't like the combination
of INDIRECT and VLOOKUP.

BTW, I am using the linked lists process that you have explained on your
website so I am pleased that you "jumped in" to help!
.

"Debra Dalgleish" wrote in message
...
Using the formula with Substitute in the Indirect function should work.

=IF(OR(ISBLANK(A3),ISBLANK(B3)),"",VLOOKUP(B3,INDI RECT(SUBSTITUTE(A3,"
","")&"Column"),2))

Is the Czech Republic range named CzechRepublicColumn ?
Perhaps the formula has a space before the equal sign.