vlookup with merged cells

[Ryan]

I have thouands of rows of data with part numbers for items. In the columns
for that part number there are multiple rows of data. What configuration of
a lookup can I use to pull my data out with the merged cells?
I've tried unmerging a few to try using vlookup, but it will only return the
first value found. It won't grab the rest of the data. Please help.

 

[Dave Peterson]

=vlookup() only retrieves the value on the row of the first match.

Chip Pearson has some notes on how to bring back an arbitrary match:
http://www.cpearson.com/Excel/TablesAndLookups.aspx