Hi CJN,

I guessing a bit here, but if the "other file" is in another workbook, then
your formula will need to look something like this. The other file is in
workbook 2 in this case.

=VLOOKUP(E1,[Book2]Sheet1!$A$1:$B$5,2,0)

HTH
Regards,
Howard

"CJN" wrote in message
...
I don't know anything about the lookup function but I suspect it is the
answer to my question.

Here is my problem:
I have a list of 5000 student names and addresses (file #1). I have
another
list of addresses and distances from a school (file #2). My goal is to be
able to somehow link file #1 to file #2 and "lookup" the distance by
matching
up the addresses.

How can I do this?