Dear experts,
I have a very frustrating problem

I download student numbers and associated data from two separate web-based
databases. One is a a student database(SourceA) and the other is
Blackboard(SourceB), more for student/staff communication.

The same student number from these two separate sources are not seen by
excel as being equivalent. Now I have searched on the web and have been down
the route of identifying, substituting char160 for char32 and removing the
first 0.

i.e.

SourceA: "0616025915 "
SourceB: "616025915"

=TRIM(SUBSTITUTE(H10,CHAR(160),CHAR(32)))
=MID(I10,2,LEN(I10))

Char160 sits on the end of the number from SourceA.
If I apply the first formula to SourceA and then manually delete the zero,
it works, I can then use VLOOKUPS successfully.
If I apply the first and the second formula to SourceA then VLOOKUPS do not
work.

My aim is not to do anything entry by entry but come up with a formula which
renders one format equivalent to the other so the two sets of data can be
merged.

Could anyone help one exasperated little black duck!!!
Martina