vlookup function, picking up the wrong row

**superdan** · 03-03-2009, 07:19 AM

Hi,
For some reason when doing a vlookup the figure pulled into my spreadsheet appears to be from the row above.

My spreadsheet is like this

A B
1 LRTN =vlookup(a1,sheet2!A2:b50,2)

Sheet two is a long list like this

LRTL Software
LRTN Mining
LRTP Cole

Basically i thought it should say mining, however it is picking up the one above, in this example 'software'

Cheers

**DonkeyOte** · 03-03-2009, 07:24 AM

=vlookup(a1,sheet2!A2:b50,2,FALSE)

**alski** · 03-03-2009, 07:26 AM

Try including the false parameter so the it is not a ranged look up!

=vlookup(a1,sheet2!A2:b50,2,false)

**superdan** · 03-03-2009, 07:49 AM

the false option doesnt make a difference!!

**DonkeyOte** · 03-03-2009, 07:53 AM

er, yes it does.... post a sample file.... presumably A1 contains LRTN ?

**superdan** · 03-03-2009, 09:45 AM

its a really long list, i dunno if that makes a difference, the table im looking up has about 2000 rows in it....

i cant post a file sorry as cant get on the site on my work pc.

yeah a1 contains the lrtn, b1 contains the lookup formula and the other sheet contains the big list of info

the false option just bangs a n/a in it....

no idea why but its using the row above what it should be?!

**martindwilson** · 03-03-2009, 10:11 AM

posibly you have spaces after text in either range or lookup cell
try 1
=VLOOKUP(TRIM(A1),(B1:C3),2,FALSE)
or 2
=VLOOKUP(TRIM(A1)&"*",(B1:C3),2,FALSE)
if that doesnt work you could try
=VLOOKUP(TRIM(A1),TRIM(B1:C3),2,FALSE) array entered with ctrl+shift+enter