how do you omit part of a cell in a vlookup?

I need to find a code in a column on a sheet but some of the cells contain other text(comments) with the code. The Vlookup i've written wont pick up on those cells containing extra text.Is it possible to use vlookup to only look at the only 5 characters in a cell. Any help would be greatly appreciated on this one.

Hi,

Your post is a bit vague. I've taking a stab at a possible solution but without a example of data and the return you expect it's a bit hard.

I've assumed your looking for the first 5 characters.

=VLOOKUP(LEFT(A1,5),C1:D5,2,FALSE)

Post more info if this isn't what your after

VBA Noob

Hi

Thanks for the reply. Will this formula work if the cells it searches might also contain additional text? For example
A1 contains "3245 case open" and
C2 contains "3245 case closed".
I need for the formula to only look at the first few cells in both cells and produce a result. Sorry if this is not making much sense but i quite new to this

Cheers

Hi

Thanks for the reply. Will this formula work if the cells it searches might also contain additional text? For example
A1 contains "3245 case open" and
C2 contains "3245 case closed".
I need for the formula to only look at the first few cells in both cells and produce a result. Sorry if this is not making much sense but i quite new to this

Cheers