lookup function

[Guest]

I have 2 lists of information that I'm using to make one and I am trying to
create a lookup formula to connect the information.

Here is my formula:
=IF(ISNA(LOOKUP(A4,L$4:L$2340,P$4$2340)),"",LOOKUP(A4,L$4:L$2340,P$4$2340))


I have used it before and it seems to work but now I try and copy it and it
is not working.

The information in Column L and P are style numbers that are alpha numeric,
would that make a difference?

 

[Stephen]

I have 2 lists of information that I'm using to make one and I am trying to
create a lookup formula to connect the information.

Here is my formula:
=IF(ISNA(LOOKUP(A4,L$4:L$2340,P$4$2340)),"",LOOKUP(A4,L$4:L$2340,P$4$2340))


I have used it before and it seems to work but now I try and copy it and
it
is not working.

The information in Column L and P are style numbers that are alpha
numeric,
would that make a difference?

I suspect what matters is the value in A4 and whether this is of the same
type as data in column L.

There is in Excel a fundamental difference between the number 123 and a text
string containing those three characters, which (for clarity) in postings we
usually write as "123". Viewed in the spreadsheet cell, both would look the
same, just the three characters 123. (Typically, a number would be
right-aligned and text left-aligned, but this can be overridden.) However,
one would be a number and the other a text string. These would behave quite
differently as regards functions such as LOOKUP.

So you need to make sure that the values in A4 and column L are all of the
same type - either numbers or text strings. For example, you can use the
formula
=ISTEXT(A4)
to determine this.