Not by anything built into excel--but you could use a User Defined Function.
Do you want to try a little macro?
Option Explicit
Function VlookupComment(myVal As Variant, myTable As Range, _
myColumn As Long, myBoolean As Boolean) As Variant
Application.Volatile True
Dim res As Variant 'could be an error
Dim myLookupCell As Range
res = Application.Match(myVal, myTable.Columns(1), myBoolean)
If IsError(res) Then
VlookupComment = "Not Found"
Else
Set myLookupCell = myTable.Columns(myColumn).Cells(1)(res)
VlookupComment = myLookupCell.Value
With Application.Caller
If .Comment Is Nothing Then
'do nothing
Else
.Comment.Delete
End If
If myLookupCell.Comment Is Nothing Then
'no comment, do nothing
Else
.AddComment Text:=myLookupCell.Comment.Text
End If
End With
End If
End Function
This kind of function could be one calculation behind. If the comment in the
table changes, then you'll want to force a recalculation before you believe the
results.
Application.volatile true
means that excel will recalculate each of these formulas each time excel
recalculates. You may notice a slowdown in your workbook.
If you remove this line, then the results in the cell will be ok, but the
comment may be wrong.
(The results in the cell should always be ok--it's the comment that's the
trouble.)
If you're new to macros, you may want to read David McRitchie's intro at:
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/getstarted.htm
Short course:
Open your workbook.
Hit alt-f11 to get to the VBE (where macros/UDF's live)
hit ctrl-R to view the project explorer
Find your workbook.
should look like: VBAProject (yourfilename.xls)
right click on the project name
Insert, then Module
You should see the code window pop up on the right hand side
Paste the code in there.
Now go back to excel.
Into a test cell and type:
=VlookupComment(a1, 'sheet 33'!a:e, 5, false)
It looks a lot like =vlookup().
