Excel not recognizing equal values

[Guest]

I can't get my vlookup formula to recognize an equal value in another column
unless I double-click on the cell that contains the value that I'm looking
for in the other column. For one or two cells, that's not a big deal, but for
a few hundred cells at a time...

 

[Guest]

The cells you are double-clicking probably are text values that look like
numbers.

Try copying a single blank cell, selecting all the values in that column,
then using
Edit->Paste Special->VAlues->Add

 

[Guest]

How do I Paste Special>Values>ADD? I mean, how do I do the "adding" (and why)?

If I copy a blank cell, and paste the value into the lookup column, it just
empties out the column.

 

[Guest]

by the way, I've tried changing the format of the cells every which way -
from text to numbers, from numbers back to text, both in the lookup values
and in the range, but still it's still not working.

 

[Guest]

In the Paste Special dialog box there is an option to Add what you have
copied to the selected cells. Since you've copied 'nothing', that is what
gets added.

If forces Excel to convert the values from text to numbers. You ought to
make sure that the column is formatted as general before performing this
operation.

 

[Guest]

This worked perfectly - thanks a lot.

In the Paste Special dialog box there is an option to Add what you have
copied to the selected cells. Since you've copied 'nothing', that is what
gets added.

If forces Excel to convert the values from text to numbers. You ought to
make sure that the column is formatted as general before performing this
operation.