vlookup error

[kenjohnson_342]

I use Vlookup everyday, all day long. I have one set of data though for some reason that won't xref for me. Below is a sample of two spreadsheets
TRAN ID dumps out with a "-001" after it, I only need the first 6 characters. So I use =LEFT to get the 6. Then I use the VLOOKUP to xref the =LEFT column against my 2 column array (WO ID:DES) to get my description.

The VLOOKUP column comes back with an error as below, however if I manually type my first WO ID ("229989") then I get the valid description. Just for fun I did an =EXACT comparing the =LEFT against the WOID in my array and results a "TRUE". So they should match.

I feel like I'm missing something stupid, any help would be appreciated! I've tried formatting. I've taken the =LEFT column and pasted as a value, etc. I can't think of anything else to try.
Thanks for any help.
Ken.



Tran ID >=LEFT >=Vlookup >WO ID >DES
229989-001 >229989 >#N/A >229989 >SSF200 3/0 RHSO 6/9 TDSILL 1BORE
230015-001 >230015 >#N/A >171913 >FC809/FC813SL/KNRT 3/0 LH 6-9/16PRM ORB
230014-001 >230014 >#N/A >168015 >S16 3/0 RHSI 5-3/8" JAMB TDSILL 2BORE
227789-001 >227789 >#N/A >168428 >FC20 3/0 LHSI 5" TD SILL 2 BORE
227412-001 >227412 >#N/A >168429 >S296 LE 3/0 LHSI 4-7/8 TD SILL 2 BORE
224106-001 >224106 >#N/A >168914 >FC125A 3/0 RHSI 5"JAMB TDSILL 2BORE
219729-001 >219729 >#N/A >168923 >FCF134 2/8 LHSI 5" JAMB TDSILL 2BORE
222018-001 >222018 >#N/A >169010 >FCM901 2/8 LHSI 7-1/4 JAMB TDSILL 2 BORE
218614-001 >218614 >#N/A >169726 >FC45C 3/0 RHSI 4/9 2-12 FC43 S/L BXD 2B

 

[VoG]

Maybe you need something like

=VLOOKUP(LEFT(A2,6)+0,.......

 

[kenjohnson_342]

Weird, but that absolutely worked. Thank you very much but it's making me nuts, why did it need that?

 

[VoG]

The +0 coerces a text value, that LEFT returns, into a number.