Can we make a vlookup when lastname may have slightly differnt spelling in
middle characters?

Excel doesn't do fuzzy logic very well.

Could you use a wildcard or two?

=VLOOKUP("jo*n*",A1:B10,2,FALSE)

Will find johnson, johnston, johnstone, jones, jobergen


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

On Thu, 1 May 2008 16:00:24 -0700, dk wrote:

Can we make a vlookup when lastname may have slightly differnt spelling in
middle characters?

Hi dk'
If you have the fourth argument of your VLOOKUP set to FALSE or 0 (zero),
then spelling variations will return a #N/A.
If you set the 4th argument to TRUE or 1, or omit it altogether, then
VLOOKUP will return something from your lookup column when there is a
miss-spelling, but you can't guarantee it'll be the name you want. Also, to
have any chance of returning the right name, the lastname column needs to be
sorted alphabetically when using the TRUE argument.
Regards - Dave.


"dk" wrote:

Can we make a vlookup when lastname may have slightly differnt spelling in
middle characters?

is there anyway to do it only by all first letters & last letters but
without having to go thru the whole ABC?

"Dave" wrote:

Hi dk'
If you have the fourth argument of your VLOOKUP set to FALSE or 0 (zero),
then spelling variations will return a #N/A.
If you set the 4th argument to TRUE or 1, or omit it altogether, then
VLOOKUP will return something from your lookup column when there is a
miss-spelling, but you can't guarantee it'll be the name you want. Also, to
have any chance of returning the right name, the lastname column needs to be
sorted alphabetically when using the TRUE argument.
Regards - Dave.


"dk" wrote:

Can we make a vlookup when lastname may have slightly differnt spelling in
middle characters?

Hi

Just modify what Gord gave you
=VLOOKUP("j*n*",A1:B10,2,FALSE)

This will find anything starting with "j" and ending with "n"

--
Regards
Roger Govier

"dk" wrote in message
...
is there anyway to do it only by all first letters & last letters but
without having to go thru the whole ABC?

"Dave" wrote:

Hi dk'
If you have the fourth argument of your VLOOKUP set to FALSE or 0 (zero),
then spelling variations will return a #N/A.
If you set the 4th argument to TRUE or 1, or omit it altogether, then
VLOOKUP will return something from your lookup column when there is a
miss-spelling, but you can't guarantee it'll be the name you want. Also,
to
have any chance of returning the right name, the lastname column needs to
be
sorted alphabetically when using the TRUE argument.
Regards - Dave.


"dk" wrote:

Can we make a vlookup when lastname may have slightly differnt spelling
in
middle characters?

I bet you meant to remove the asterisk after the "n".

=VLOOKUP("j*n",A1:B10,2,FALSE)

Roger Govier wrote:

Hi

Just modify what Gord gave you
=VLOOKUP("j*n*",A1:B10,2,FALSE)

This will find anything starting with "j" and ending with "n"

--
Regards
Roger Govier

"dk" wrote in message
...
is there anyway to do it only by all first letters & last letters but
without having to go thru the whole ABC?

"Dave" wrote:

Hi dk'
If you have the fourth argument of your VLOOKUP set to FALSE or 0 (zero),
then spelling variations will return a #N/A.
If you set the 4th argument to TRUE or 1, or omit it altogether, then
VLOOKUP will return something from your lookup column when there is a
miss-spelling, but you can't guarantee it'll be the name you want. Also,
to
have any chance of returning the right name, the lastname column needs to
be
sorted alphabetically when using the TRUE argument.
Regards - Dave.


"dk" wrote:

Can we make a vlookup when lastname may have slightly differnt spelling
in
middle characters?

--

Dave Peterson

A sound bet, Dave.
You would have won!!!

--
Regards
Roger Govier

"Dave Peterson" wrote in message
...
I bet you meant to remove the asterisk after the "n".

=VLOOKUP("j*n",A1:B10,2,FALSE)

Roger Govier wrote:

Hi

Just modify what Gord gave you
=VLOOKUP("j*n*",A1:B10,2,FALSE)

This will find anything starting with "j" and ending with "n"

--
Regards
Roger Govier

"dk" wrote in message
...
is there anyway to do it only by all first letters & last letters but
without having to go thru the whole ABC?

"Dave" wrote:

Hi dk'
If you have the fourth argument of your VLOOKUP set to FALSE or 0
(zero),
then spelling variations will return a #N/A.
If you set the 4th argument to TRUE or 1, or omit it altogether, then
VLOOKUP will return something from your lookup column when there is a
miss-spelling, but you can't guarantee it'll be the name you want.
Also,
to
have any chance of returning the right name, the lastname column needs
to
be
sorted alphabetically when using the TRUE argument.
Regards - Dave.


"dk" wrote:

Can we make a vlookup when lastname may have slightly differnt
spelling
in
middle characters?

--

Dave Peterson