To clarify things, the format type of the cell I'm searching is General.
Worksheet #1 has a table with column A having inventory item numbers, column
b has the description of the item, column c is blank. worksheet #2 has a
table with column A having inventory item numbers, colum b has description,
and column c has the costs. I want worksheet #1 to show the costs from
worksheet #2.

The info for worksheet #2 came from a report generated onto a word document
that I copied and pasted into worksheet #2, which is why I was wondering if
the copy and paste was the issue.

Turns out worksheet #2 info in column A had extra spaces in it when I copied
it. So to fix that, I went under the menu Data, selected "Text to Columns"
and set the width as delimited by space. Then I re-ented my formula in
worksheet #1 and it worked.

I guess what happened was both column A's inventory items looked the same,
but in worksheet #2 there were extra spaces that I couldn't see and that's
why it didn't work.

Thanks! And I liked the link on the vlookups. Very informative.

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

Debra Dalgleish has lots of notes on troubleshooting =vlookup():
http://contextures.com/xlFunctions02.html#Trouble

KRISTENV wrote:

I am very familiar with VLOOKUP but am having problems cutting and pasting
correctly. I copied info from an excel worksheet (on a separate file) to my
current worksheet to use a reference. A second worksheet has the VLOOKUP
formula, but they aren't working. However, I find if I re-type the info in
just the cell it's searching on in the worksheet that has the formula, it
works.

I've tried recopying the data and pasting as value. My only other option is
to retype every stinking line. Can anyone suggest anything to help?

Thanks!

--

Dave Peterson