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My colleague asked me how to implement a VLOOKUP formula because he was getting an #N/A error message. I highlighted the cells but I did not receive a tooltip like the one shown in the image below (couldn't post image because reputation is too low). I tried to fix the problem by changing the format of the cells (right click, Format Cells...) being referenced by the formula but I couldn't get it to work. I had him email me the file and then I opened it on my computer and when I highlighted the cells in question the tooltip appeared. Is there some kind of Excel configuration that determines if this tooltip appears? (I might be misusing the word tooltip, I mean that yellow box with the ! in it. Thank you for your help.

http://scholargram.com/4SO.png

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2 Answers 2

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Excel sees the values in column P as text strings. My guess is your VLOOKUP reference are numbers. Change your formula from ...VLOOKUP(P2... to ...VLOOKUP(VALUE(P2)...

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  • Someone give me rep so I can upvote this guy's answer.
    – Richard Pullman
    Feb 22, 2013 at 17:05
  • Thank you ExactaBox who you have in the 5th race at Belmont tomorrow?
    – Richard Pullman
    Feb 22, 2013 at 17:05
  • @RichardPullman you'll be able to upvote as soon as you have 15 rep. just one more nice question or answer - and you're done. Good luck!)
    – Peter L.
    Feb 22, 2013 at 18:21
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You can just add a column with the formula "=1*A2" where A2 is the cell which contains the number formatted as text.

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  • This Also works!
    – Richard Pullman
    Feb 22, 2013 at 17:32

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