I'm sorry - It does return the last value unless you limit the range to a specific row range of the
column - I'm not sure why, but it is likely to be related to how VLOOKUP manages entire column
ranges.

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP


"Bernie Deitrick" <deitbe @ consumer dot org wrote in message
...
Steve,

It does not return the last value in column A, if that value is not the largest (latest) value in
column A..

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP


wrote in message
...
=VLOOKUP(MAX($A:$A),$A:$A,1)

This function is meant to provide the value displayed in the lower-
most/last active cell in column A. It is provided as a solution to
someone who has a list of figures in a spreadsheet, the last cell of
which is the most up to date figure available and needs to be
displayed elsewhere on the sheet, especially if the last active cell
is constantly changing.

However, I thought MAX( ) would display the largest figure in the
column - not the figure in the largest row number occupied. But the
function does actually work - it displays whatever is in the final row
occupied of column A; even if the last row is the smallest figure in
the column!

Can anyone provide an explanation of why?

Steve