Hi arno,

"arno" wrote in message:
I do not agree. I always set the datatypes right once, then I never
have to think about it again. Pls. note that the data can be a
datasource for other databases etc. etc.

Just like the world is not "black and white" there could be different
situatiations - so the best solution will depend on that. Sometimes it makes
sense fixing the data especially when it is going to be used the way you
described, however sometimes it is easier and more practical to do it via
formula e.g. in a situation where you have no control over the data format,
or it is a one-off exercise, or the data may need to be used in exactly the
format they have been entered: the numbers as numbres and the text as text,
etc. What makes you think that we are currently dealing with a dataset for
further use with sql statement? I just offered a quick alternative solution.

BTW your formula is _wrong_ because if you search for 1a you will find...

Yep, thank for this I just copied it from another solution I did and forgot
to remove the asteriscs. So the final formula could be:

=VLOOKUP(""&A1&"",TEXT(B1:G100,"0"),2,0)

Regards,
KL