VLOOKUP similar names problem

[rob_ford16]

Hi,

I have a list of place names in column A. I need to reference those place names in a list and return a number.

Example:


[TABLE="width: 500"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD="align: center"][/TD]
[TD="align: center"]A[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]B[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]C[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]D[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]Federated States of Micronesia[/TD]
[TD]Micronesia (the Federated States of)[/TD]
[TD]498[/TD]
[TD]=vlookup(A1&"*",B1:C10,2,true)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]Micronesia[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]3[/TD]
[TD]The States of Micronesia[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]


I tried doing =vlookup(A1&"*",B1:C10,2,true) and got nothing. I want it to return cell C1 498 in cells D1:D3.

Thanks!!

 

[VoG]

Try a fuzzy lookup http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/excel-questions/195635-fuzzy-matching-new-version-plus-explanation.html

 

[rob_ford16]

That looks super complicated and it looks like I would still have to manually verify each record returned the correct value...my file contains over 200,000 records so that could take forever! Is there anyway I could format things a certain way that would help? I tried removing all symbols but still got an error...

 

[marknhopgood]

What does the number 498 represent?
What is your master list?
What are you comparing?

I have an idea as to how to do this, just need a little more info on what you are trying to achieve.