vlookup will not return a cell to the left of the value looked up

[Guest]

In Cell D1 if I am looking up the contents of a cell C1 (in this case the
name "bill") in the range A1:B10 and "Bill" is found in B2. Why is it that
if I ask for 1 to be returned I get an #n/a message.

D1 =vlookup(C1,A1:B10,1,false)

Why doesn't this work and is there a way to correct the problem?
Thank You
Brian

 

[Niek Otten]

Hi Brian,

This is because VLOOKUP always searches in the first column.
To do what you require, use the MATCH() and INDEX() function, like in

=INDEX(A1:A5,MATCH(D1,B1:B5))

But look in Help for the MATCH() function; it has an additional argument,
comparable to the 4th argument of VLOOKUP()

--

Kind Regards,

Niek Otten

Microsoft MVP - Excel

 

[Gord Dibben]

Brian

See Chip Pearson's site for left lookups.

http://www.cpearson.com/excel/lookups.htm#LeftLookup

Gord Dibben Excel MVP

 

[Darrell Dotson]

Have you tried 2? It seems to me that the information is
found in the 2nd column, and not the first...