Vlookup acting funky

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sandra
  • Start date Start date
S

Sandra

I've done a vlookup but instead of the formula calculating, it just shows
what was typed in the formula bar in the cell on the spreadsheet. Why might
it do that? I've used vlookups lots of times before and don't see my error.
 
Your cell was formatted as text before you entered the formula.
Format as General and re-enter the formula (F2, ENTER)
--

Kind Regards,

Niek Otten

Microsoft MVP - Excel
al and re-enter the formula (F2, ENTER)
 
Hi
check if the cell is formated as 'Text' (menu: 'Format - cells'). If
yes, change it to General' and re-enter the formula
 
This works great. Thanks.

But, I have several files each with 20,000+ rows like this. I can click on
each cell and click on the formula bar and hit enter or I can move the
cursor to each cell and hit F2. Both ways work fine but how can I do this to
an entire column all at once?
 
One possible way, change the format on all cells by selectning them and do
format>cells>number
Now while still selected, do edit>replace and replace = with =
by replacing the equal sign with the equal sign you might be able to force a
calculation thus
retruning the result of the formula

Regards,

Peo Sjoblom
 
Hi Sandra,

I suppose all those rows are copies of the top row; I can't imagine you
typed them in all without noticing that they didn't calculate.
Correct the top one and copy down.

Post again if I'm wrong.

--

Kind Regards,

Niek Otten

Microsoft MVP - Excel
 
I ended up highlighting all cells, changing format, entering the vlookup on
the first cell and then copying the formula down to all the others. This is
all data from a mainframe so I didn't type any of it.
Thanks
 
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