VLOOKUP formula pulling data from another sheet

I'm using the VLOOKUP Formula to match the "Application" in table 1 to "Application Name" in table 2, then return the "Primary Product Family" from Table 2, Column 2 to "Program" in Table 1 where the formula is.

=VLOOKUP(Application@row, {Applications}, 2, false)

What I'm I doing wrong?

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Answers

  • Jgorsich
    Jgorsich ✭✭✭✭

    Vlookup sometimes has very odd problems - here is another example.

    Looking at what you've got, it seems like the problems only happen when your application name doesn't start with a 0. Given that Smartsheet tries to automatically differentiate between a numeric value and a text value, and given that a leading 0 makes it 100% certain it is treating it as text, I'm betting the problem lies it it considering one of the two application numbers to be a numeric value and the other to be text.

    If that is the case, making a helper column in each sheet that was "="app" + application@row" or "="app" + [application name]@row" and then using your formula on those helper columns instead would force it to treat everything as text and might solve the issue.

    Also - just a suggestion - index(match()) tends to have fewer issues than Vlookup.

  • bisaacs
    bisaacs ✭✭✭✭✭

    Hey @jwilson,

    Have you tried using INDEX/COLLECT in the Program colum? That seems to work for me:

    =INDEX(COLLECT({Product Family Column}, {Application Name Column}, Application@row), 1)

    Hope this helps!

    If my response was helpful in any way (or answered your question) please be sure to upvote it, mark it as awesome, or mark it as the accepted answer!

    I'm always looking to connect with other industry professionals, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn as well!

  • jwilson
    jwilson ✭✭✭

    Thank you for your answer. So if I was going to use INDEX(MATCH()), how would I write the formula?

  • jwilson
    jwilson ✭✭✭

    @Jgorsich I created a helper column in both sheets and it worked. Thank you for your help

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