Need help with function and date sorting

[spm226]

I am tryign to run the following statement in excel:

=IF(O42="AB",VLOOKUP(WIPCOEI2012!O42,WIPCOEI2012!$O$51:$R$52,3,FALSE),IF(O42="AT",VLOOKUP(WIPCOEI2012!O43,WIPCOEI2012!$O$51:$R$52,3,FALSE)))

When I cut and paste this row of cells, one of which has the above statement, the "O42" reference will migrate in both the IF statement and VLOOKUP function. When I try to sort multiple highlighted rows, the IF statment O42 reference will change like it is suposed to (depending on where it move to as a result of the sort) but, the VLOOKUP O42 reference will not change. See example when I sort:

=IF(O45="AB",VLOOKUP(WIPCOEI2012!O42,WIPCOEI2012!$O$51:$R$52,3,FALSE),IF(O42="AT",VLOOKUP(WIPCOEI2012!O43,WIPCOEI2012!$O$51:$R$52,3,FALSE)))


What is strange to me is that if I manually sort via cut-an-paste method both references change liek they should...

=IF(O45="AB",VLOOKUP(WIPCOEI2012!O45,WIPCOEI2012!$O$51:$R$52,3,FALSE),IF(O42="AT",VLOOKUP(WIPCOEI2012!O43,WIPCOEI2012!$O$51:$R$52,3,FALSE)))


What am I doing wrong?

[Moo the Dog]

Instead of O42, use $O$42 if you don't want it to change... then it becomes an absolute reference instead of relative.

- Moo

[spm226]

The point is that I want it to change and it does not.