Lookups

[Guest]

I noticed Vlookups usually want entire cell contents. Is there a lookup
function that works more like a find? For example, say I want to find a word in
a description. Vlookup wants me to supply the entire description in the cell,
not a partial. How do I simulate a serch with a lookup, where I'm not matching
the entire cell content, but just trying to find the first three letters, or
maybe a section of the cells contents?
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Don Guillett]

In programming, use the FIND function for xlpart. look in vba help for FIND.
There is a good example.

 

[Alan Beban]

I noticed Vlookups usually want entire cell contents. Is there a lookup
function that works more like a find? For example, say I want to find a word in
a description. Vlookup wants me to supply the entire description in the cell,
not a partial. How do I simulate a serch with a lookup, where I'm not matching
the entire cell content, but just trying to find the first three letters, or
maybe a section of the cells contents?
(e-mail address removed)

???

With abcde,fghij,and klmno in A1:A3, and 1 2 3 in B1:B3

=VLOOKUP("*ghi*",a1:b3,2,0) will return 2

Alan Beban