Numbers lookup giving wrong results

Hi... Having converted everything in sight to Apple, now using Numbers for first time (having been conversant with Excel).


The Lookup function is driving me crazy. I'm asking the formula to look at a cell in the current sheet, find the same value in a column on another sheet, and display the value given on that sheet in a different column to the current cell. But when I test what I've done the results are all over the place. The aim is to find if an exhibitor in our Flower & Produce Show has their random exhibit number listed as a winning entry in the results sheet, and if so display either 3, 2 or 1 points depending on whether their number appears in the 1st, 2nd or 3rd place column.


Here's the formula in cell M3. Right result, but given I've got the same formula in all the other cells in column M, other than the cell first looked up, why am I getting the same results in all the column cells? I've only entered '34' once in the table being looked up. All the other cells are blank.

User uploaded file


And why, for the same formula in N, do I get some cells showing a correct error message and one showing '2'?

User uploaded file



And finally for column O, I get mostly '1's and one correct error message. Any help much appreciated! Thanks, John

User uploaded file

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Aug 22, 2014 9:19 AM

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8 replies

Aug 22, 2014 2:06 PM in response to zaz283

I think there may be two problems you should consider here:


1. You need the 'Random ex' in a column in Table 1 too, and the second argument of LOOKUP (the 'search-where') needs to refer to that column.

2. VLOOKUP may be more appropriate, in which case you can look up its syntax and specify the column number.


SG

Aug 22, 2014 9:58 PM in response to SGIII

Apologies SGIII... it might have been better if the screenshot I included of Table 1 showed the cells where I'd input the 'Random ex' numbers. Here's that screenshot showing that. Can't understand why, although LOOKUP is giving the right results for M3, N4 & O5, why I'm not getting error messages in all the other cells.


I tried VLOOKUP set to 'Exact' and that was no better.


Thanks, John

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Numbers lookup giving wrong results

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