I'm using a simple vlookup. The values I want results for (on the very
left of my array) apparently do not have the same format as the ones I
am looking up.

If I want them to produce a result, I have to copy and paste as a value
in the array and only then will my vlookup will work.

It's not a formatting issue - because I've checked formats and they're
both General.

Is there a way to make them comparable? Any help would be greatly
appreciated.


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alisyed
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Is there a reason you would not simply Copy the whole column, and Paste
Special, Values back over itsself?

ie, is the array changeable? - and if so how is the data created?

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alisyed Wrote:
I'm using a simple vlookup. The values I want results for (on the very
left of my array) apparently do not have the same format as the ones I
am looking up.

If I want them to produce a result, I have to copy and paste as a value
in the array and only then will my vlookup will work.

It's not a formatting issue - because I've checked formats and they're
both General.

Is there a way to make them comparable? Any help would be greatly
appreciated.


--
Bryan Hessey
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bryan Hessey's Profile: http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=21059
View this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=530448

I had a similar problem just today. The value I was looking up was
formatted as text - even though Excel indicated it was a number in the
FormatCells menu.

There is probably a simpler way to fix the problem...but I used a
working cell =VALUE(CellReference) and used that cell for the vlookup
instead...

Hope this helps. But yes....the common sense approach is copy/paste
values....wish I had thought of that :(

/systematic


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systematic
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systematic's Profile: http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=25294
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yeah, i cant just copy and paste as values since the data is not in the
same order...


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alisyed
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View this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=530448

Simply formatting the cells as Number or General is not sufficient if Excel
believes they are text.

Select an empty cell formatted as Number and EditCopy.

Select your range of data and Paste SpecialAddOKEsc to coerce the data to
Numbers.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP


On Thu, 6 Apr 2006 06:36:44 -0500, alisyed
wrote:


I'm using a simple vlookup. The values I want results for (on the very
left of my array) apparently do not have the same format as the ones I
am looking up.

If I want them to produce a result, I have to copy and paste as a value
in the array and only then will my vlookup will work.

It's not a formatting issue - because I've checked formats and they're
both General.

Is there a way to make them comparable? Any help would be greatly
appreciated.

Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP