Vlookup failing - it's gotta be me

[PattiButche]

I am experiencing a problem with vlookup that is.. frustrating me. I admit that my primary skillset is not in excel, but I thought I knew what I was doing. But I'm struggling to understand what might be causing this and I hope someone can point out something obvious that I'm just not seeing.

Super simple chart....

Super simple vlookup formula:
=VLOOKUP(B7,A2:C5,3)

Is it me? Am I tired? Why would this look up the KIWI entry, and then return $37? why am I getting $13? It's gotta be me. What super obvious problem am I overlooking or failing to understand?
Why would I get 13 (for apple) and not 37 for kiwi?

 

[MARK858]

Book1
	A	B	C
2	Apple		13
3	Orange		8
4	Pear		20
5	Kiwi		37
6
7		Kiwi
8		37
Sheet5

Cell Formulas
Range	Formula
B8	B8	=VLOOKUP(B7,$A$2:$C$5,3,0)

You need the ,0 or FALSE for an exact match, VLOOKUP defaults to TRUE or 1 for an approximate match if you omit it

 

[PattiButche]

Book1
	A	B	C
2	Apple		13
3	Orange		8
4	Pear		20
5	Kiwi		37
6
7		Kiwi
8		37
Sheet5

Cell Formulas
Range	Formula
B8	B8	=VLOOKUP(B7,$A$2:$C$5,3,0)

You need the ,0 or FALSE for an exact match, VLOOKUP defaults to TRUE or 1 for an approximate match if you omit it

Thank you for confirming. I'm going to pick up the project again tomorrow (after I get some sleep!) and practice again. For my understanding; does this formula - when NOT set to exact - randomly select a row to display? or is there a logical reason behind the information it retrieves? I can understand my assumption that vlookup was pulling the EXACT row of the resulting hit was at fault here. But as I tested, it on various tables, it kept giving me consistent results (same answer over and over), but not in any pattern could decipher. I just want to understand... how would vlookup be used if not for an exact match? I want to better understand how /why would use this formula.

 

[MARK858]

An approximate match is the next largest value in the range that is less than your lookup value if an exact match for your look up value isn't found, and the left hand column of the reference range must be sorted .

how would vlookup be used if not for an exact match? I want to better understand how /why would use this formula

Example

Book1
	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
1	Student name	score	Grade				Reference table
2	Joe Bloggs	57	D				Score	Grade
3							0	F
4							45	E
5							50	D
6							65	C
7							80	B
8							90	A
Sheet6

Cell Formulas
Range	Formula
C2	C2	=VLOOKUP(B2,$G$3:$H$8,2,TRUE)

 

[PattiButche]

An approximate match is the next largest value in the range that is less than your lookup value if an exact match for your look up value isn't found, and the left hand column of the reference range must be sorted .


Example

Book1
	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
1	Student name	score	Grade				Reference table
2	Joe Bloggs	57	D				Score	Grade
3							0	F
4							45	E
5							50	D
6							65	C
7							80	B
8							90	A
Sheet6

Cell Formulas
Range	Formula
C2	C2	=VLOOKUP(B2,$G$3:$H$8,2,TRUE)

Thank you Mark! I am deeply appreciative of you helping unravel the assumptions I was operating under. Thank you for the clarifications.

 

[MARK858]

Happy it helped and welcome to the forum