AboutBill Hermanson Expertise I am an expert at data manipulation, the use of logical statements, combining tables and extracting data, all the LOGICAL, LOOKUP & REFERENCE functions, creating professional appearing spreadsheets, complex functions, integrated charts and visual displays, user interfaces.... I can make Excel do anything! But PLEASE... NO MACRO QUESTIONS!
Experience 25 years development of complex spreadsheets for personal and professional use. I've developed hundreds (or thousands!) of spreadsheets in all fields, from complex enginering calculations to game scoring, financial analysis, scheduling, cost-of-doing-business, and analysis of home energy use. I even used Excel to assist in design of the flight computers on board the Hubble-Space Telescope (1984-1991)
Education/Credentials Boulder Valley School District, Life Long Learning, Instructor
Expert: Bill Hermanson Date: 7/25/2008 Subject: excel vlookup
Question QUESTION: I have used the formula wizard to build a vlookup and the correct result shows in the formula wizard box, but when applied to the cell, the result does not appear, instead the formula appears. What did I do wrong?
ANSWER: Michael,
That is weird!
There are two possibilities I can think of:
1) somehow, the formula does not begin with an = or + sign. So Excel thinks it is text. Add one of these to the beginning of the formula.
2) the worksheet is set to display formulas.... but that would show ALL the formulas, not just that one. Try pressing CONTROL-GRAVE-ACCENT (This is the backwards quote-like symbol under the TILDE, which itself is a little wavy line... on my keyboard this key is in the very upper left next to the number 1)
It must be #1
let me know what it was, I'm curious.
>>> Bill
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: I verified that an = leads the formula and when I toggle the display formula setting (ctrl grave accent) the formula shows in both settings.
Is there anything else that you can think of?
Thanks, Michael
Answer Michael,
GOT IT!
Those cells are formatted as TEXT. No matter what you put in there, it will be interpreted as TEXT.
Change the formatting to general, or number, or anything else, and it will work fine.
