Converting a LARGE volume of numbers to text in Excel for VLOOKUP
 

I have a VERY large table that I want to use in a VLOOKUP function. Th
first column of the table, if I understand correctly, needs to be i
text format. It is currently all in number format, causing my VLOOKU
function to not work properly. If I right click on the entire column
and format it into TEXT format, the numbers all align over to the left
appearing to have been converted to text. However, the VLOOKU
function still doesn't work. BUT....if I find the value in the tabl
manually, F2 it, and then hit ENTER, my VLOOKUP function then DOE
work.

It almost seems to be that it doesn't actually convert to text unless
do this step (F2, enter). The problem is, there's over 40000 rows i
this table, so I can't possibly do this to every cell in that firs
column. Is there a macro (I'm macro-challenged) or some other way tha
I can do this quickly and easily

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Message posted from http://www.ExcelForum.com

Converting a LARGE volume of numbers to text in Excel for VLOOKUP
 

First, Your data doesn't have to be text. It's just that often your search
argument is sometimes text and sometimes numbers, that make the results
looking inconsistent.
So the easiest thing is to make sure your search argument is a number (if
you're sure your table is all numbers). You can use the VALUE() function for
that.
If for some reason you insist on making your table text, introduce a
(temporary) extra column, use the TEXT() function to convert to text, copy
and replace the original with the results using Paste SpecialValues

--

Kind Regards,

Niek Otten

Microsoft MVP - Excel

"JoFlo " wrote in message
...
I have a VERY large table that I want to use in a VLOOKUP function. The
first column of the table, if I understand correctly, needs to be in
text format. It is currently all in number format, causing my VLOOKUP
function to not work properly. If I right click on the entire column,
and format it into TEXT format, the numbers all align over to the left,
appearing to have been converted to text. However, the VLOOKUP
function still doesn't work. BUT....if I find the value in the table
manually, F2 it, and then hit ENTER, my VLOOKUP function then DOES
work.

It almost seems to be that it doesn't actually convert to text unless I
do this step (F2, enter). The problem is, there's over 40000 rows in
this table, so I can't possibly do this to every cell in that first
column. Is there a macro (I'm macro-challenged) or some other way that
I can do this quickly and easily?


---
Message posted from http://www.ExcelForum.com/

Converting a LARGE volume of numbers to text in Excel for VLOOKUP
 

It might be possible to avoid even needing a macro: have
you tried adding another column to the left and using the
TEXT function to force the value to be seen as text; in
other words something like:

A1 = TEXT(B1,"#######")
etc...

Don't know if this would work but could be an easy fix.

-----Original Message-----
I have a VERY large table that I want to use in a VLOOKUP
function. The
first column of the table, if I understand correctly,
needs to be in
text format. It is currently all in number format,
causing my VLOOKUP
function to not work properly. If I right click on the
entire column,
and format it into TEXT format, the numbers all align
over to the left,
appearing to have been converted to text. However, the
VLOOKUP
function still doesn't work. BUT....if I find the value
in the table
manually, F2 it, and then hit ENTER, my VLOOKUP function
then DOES
work.

It almost seems to be that it doesn't actually convert to
text unless I
do this step (F2, enter). The problem is, there's over
40000 rows in
this table, so I can't possibly do this to every cell in
that first
column. Is there a macro (I'm macro-challenged) or some
other way that
I can do this quickly and easily?


---
Message posted from http://www.ExcelForum.com/

.