Hello,

I have what must be a fairly common problem with the lookup_value field in VLOOKUP and MATCH. If I copy a list from somewhere into my workbook, using that list for VLOOKUP or MATCH, often the numbers that I want to use as the lookup reference are actually formatted as text. In the same list, I'll have text items to look up, too. For example:

Cell A1: 45383
Cell A2: G6552

The text field above is easy--leave it as is--but the number in A1 might actually be text. If I don't want to change the list upon import, can I use a formula to convert? For example, =VLOOKUP(value(A1,...). The value formula works for A1, but not A2. I need the same formula that will convert text numbers to values and leave text references like A2, above, intact. Any ideas?

Paul