Why is my VLOOKUP not working?

David Brandt

This is the formula I am using:

=VLOOKUP([ANALYST PARTICIPANTS]@row, {SAFFS::Firm:Analyst}, 2, false)

I have a separate Smartsheet that has a list of Firm/Analyst names that I used Data Shuttle to make. It has an attached .csv file with the data. SAFFS is the name of this Smartsheet.

The first part of the formula is fine, but the back half doesn't work at all. It should be referencing the SAFFS sheet and cross referencing it based on an Analyst name in the ANALYST PARTICIPANTS column in order to grab the Firm name, but no such luck. #INVALID REF

Any ideas?

The agony.

Anjanesh Vaidya

Hi David Brandt,

You can try the following formula-

=VLOOKUP([ANALYST PARTICIPANTS]@row, {SAFFS:Firm:Analyst}, 2, false)

Here, I have removed a colon in the lookup table selection. So, you can again recheck the reference and correct it.

I hope it will work.

Thank you,

Anjanesh Vaidya

David Brandt

Thanks Anjanesh. Much appreciate your feedback.

I have found that this is the formula that works: =VLOOKUP([PRIMARY ANALYST PARTICIPANTS]@row, {SAFFS Range 1}, 2, false)

Still not sure the difference between what I originally had bracketed and what I have bracketed here, but that made the difference.

One of the issues that I have found frustrating is that you can't populate multiple names (or companies) into a column with VLOOKUP. There appear to be workarounds but nothing super simple that I have found.