First, a technical point: a formula will NEVER leave a cell blank. "Blank"
means contains nothing. A formula is not nothing.

Second...continuing with my posted example:

Try this standard approach to avoiding displayed errors:
B1: =IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(A1,LU_TaxID,2,0)),"",VLOOKUP(A1,LU_TaxID,2,0))

That formula makes the cell appear blank.

Does that help?

***********
Regards,
Ron

XL2002, WinXP-Pro


"blasds78" wrote:

> Thanks, Ron! That helped.
>
> I have one last thing I'd like to change. If I input nothing into a cell,
> how do I get rid of the "#N/A" and just have a blank cell?
>
> Thanks,
> Doug
>
> "Ron Coderre" wrote:
>
> > Yes, it seems like VLOOKUP will do what you want.
> >
> > Try this:
> >
> > On a separate sheet, create a 2-column list of state abbreviations and TaxIDs
> > Since it's good practice to use range names in these situations:
> > select the 2-col list
> > <Insert><Name><Define>
> > Names in workbook: LU_TaxID
> > Refers to: (your already selected list range)
> > Click the [OK] button
> >
> > Next, on your input sheet...
> > Assuming you input a State Abbreviation in A1
> > B1: =VLOOKUP(A1,LU_TaxID,2,0)
> >
> > That formula will search the first column of the LU_TaxID range for the
> > state abbreviation in A1 and return the corresponding TaxID.
> >
> > One other tip. You might want to consider using Data Validation for the
> > State Abbreviations to ensure that only valid abbreviations are used.
> > See Debra Dalgleish's Contextures website for instructions:
> >
> > http://www.contextures.com/xlDataVal01.html
> >
> > Does that help?
> >
> > ***********
> > Regards,
> > Ron
> >
> > XL2002, WinXP-Pro
> >
> >
> > "blasds78" wrote:
> >
> > > I'm a novice at this function.
> > >
> > > We send money to the department of revenue for each state. Each state has
> > > an assigned "account" number. My spreadsheet has a column in which a state
> > > abbreviation should be typed. If I enter the state abbreviation "MO", I
> > > would like to have the corresponding "account" number appear in the adjacent
> > > cell.
> > >
> > > Is this the best function to use? And, if so, how do I get it to work? I
> > > keep getting error messages with this.