excel vlookup exact match decimal value not available N/A despite being identical

Question

Dear StackExchange community,

https://www.mrexcel.com/forum/excel-questions/552781-vlookup-value-not-available-error.html

https://www.mrexcel.com/forum/about-board/1017050-mrexcel-html-maker-update-4.html

Please assist - I have used the MrExcelHtml formatting utility (linked above) to aid converting an excel sheet to HTML. I have run and tested it in standard browser as a standalone HTML page, and the spreadsheet is displayed beautifully. But when I paste the same HTML into the forum posting editor, the result is not achieved... The part example I have attempted to author below is really tricky to explain without the formatted table - if there is an alternative method or workaround, I'll be happy to employ it next month when I return from holiday.

Thanks in advance,

A

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The following Excel 2010 question re the VLOOKUP value not available error has been google searched as per the forum below; https://www.mrexcel.com/forum/excel-questions/552781-vlookup-value-not-available-error.html

Let's pretend we need to lookup by exact value matching, the enumeration of some unique decimal values, some of which might extend to 4 decimal places. In Office 2010 Excel v14, VLOOKUP() seems able to handle up to 4 decimal places and I'd be interested if anyone's had success making it find exact matches for values with more decimal places than this (fair enough; there has to be a limit somewhere!)

The following values are an example subset from 1000's of enumerated values, which must be matched exactly (and only exactly) to backwards derive an enumeration:

A              B
110.9788   <t> 1   
110.97885  <t> 2   
110.9789   <t> 3   

...but as you'll notice, A2 has 5dp's...too many for VLOOKUP. Interestingly, in the 'general' cell format view, cell A2

=VLOOKUP(110.9788, A:B, 2, FALSE)    
=VLOOKUP(110.97885, A:B, 2, FALSE)    
=VLOOKUP(110.9789, A:B, 2, FALSE)

Then run the below in your VBA immediate window...

  activesheet.cells(8,2).value = worksheetfunction.RoundUp(activesheet.cells(4,2).value, 4)

 <b>Excel 2010</b> <table cellpadding="2.5px" rules="all" style=";background-color: rgb(255,255,255);border: 1px solid;border-collapse: collapse; border-color: rgb(187,187,187)"><colgroup><col width="25px" style="background-color: rgb(218,231,245)" /><col /><col /><col /><col /><col /><col /></colgroup><thead><tr style=" background-color: rgb(218,231,245);text-align: center;color: rgb(22,17,32)"><th></th><th>A</th><th>B</th><th>C</th><th>D</th><th>E</th><th>F</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr ><td style="color: rgb(22,17,32);text-align: center;">1</td><td style=";">activesheet.cells(10,2).value = worksheetfunction.RoundUp( activesheet.cells(6,2).value, 4)</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td></tr><tr ><td style="color: rgb(22,17,32);text-align: center;">2</td><td style=";">activesheet.cells(11,2).value = worksheetfunction.Floor(activesheet.cells(7,2).value,1)</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td></tr><tr ><td style="color: rgb(22,17,32);text-align: center;">3</td><td style=";">activesheet.cells(12,2).value = 0.1 * fix(10 * activesheet.cells(7,2).value)</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td></tr><tr ><td style="color: rgb(22,17,32);text-align: center;">4</td><td style="font-weight: bold;;">how values were input into B column</td><td style="font-weight: bold;;">values</td><td style="font-weight: bold;;">enum</td><td style="font-weight: bold;text-align: right;;"></td><td style="font-weight: bold;;">typed values</td><td style="font-weight: bold;;">Vlookup Result</td></tr><tr ><td style="color: rgb(22,17,32);text-align: center;">5</td><td style=";">typed 110.9775</td><td style="text-align: right;;">110.9775</td><td style="text-align: right;;">1</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;">110.9788</td><td style="text-align: right;;">4</td></tr><tr ><td style="color: rgb(22,17,32);text-align: center;">6</td><td style=";">typed 110.97885</td><td style="text-align: right;;">110.9789</td><td style="text-align: right;;">2</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;">110.9789</td><td style="text-align: right;;">2</td></tr><tr ><td style="color: rgb(22,17,32);text-align: center;">7</td><td style=";">typed 110.979</td><td style="text-align: right;;">110.979</td><td style="text-align: right;;">3</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;">110.9789</td><td style="text-align: right;;">#N/A</td></tr><tr ><td style="color: rgb(22,17,32);text-align: center;">8</td><td style=";">rounddown(B4)</td><td style="text-align: right;;">110.9788</td><td style="text-align: right;;">4</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;">110</td><td style="text-align: right;;">7</td></tr><tr ><td style="color: rgb(22,17,32);text-align: center;">9</td><td style=";">copy pasted from B4</td><td style="text-align: right;;">110.9789</td><td style="text-align: right;;">5</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style="text-align: right;;">110.9</td><td style="text-align: right;;">8</td></tr><tr ><td style="color: rgb(22,17,32);text-align: center;">10</td><td style=";">using cell A1's VBA code</td><td style="text-align: right;;">110.9789</td><td style="text-align: right;;">6</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style=";">F4=VLOOKUP(E4,B:C,2,FALSE)</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td></tr><tr ><td style="color: rgb(22,17,32);text-align: center;">11</td><td style=";">using cell A2's VBA code</td><td style="text-align: right;;">110</td><td style="text-align: right;;">7</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style=";">F5=VLOOKUP(E5,B:C,2,FALSE)</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td></tr><tr ><td style="color: rgb(22,17,32);text-align: center;">12</td><td style=";">using cell A3's VBA code</td><td style="text-align: right;;">110.9</td><td style="text-align: right;;">8</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td><td style=";">etc..</td><td style="text-align: right;;"></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="width:4.8em;font-weight:bold;margin:0;padding:0.2em 0.6em 0.2em 0.5em;border: 1px solid rgb(187,187,187);border-top:none;text-align: center;background-color: rgb(218,231,245);color: rgb(22,17,32)">Sheet1</p><br /><br /><table width="85%" cellpadding="2.5px" rules="all" style=";border: 2px solid black;border-collapse:collapse;padding: 0.4em;background-color: rgb(255,255,255)" ><tr><td style="padding:6px" ><b>Worksheet Formulas</b><table cellpadding="2.5px" width="100%" rules="all" style="border: 1px solid;text-align:center;background-color: rgb(255,255,255);border-collapse: collapse; border-color: rgb(187,187,187)"><thead><tr style=" background-color: rgb(218,231,245);color: rgb(22,17,32)"><th width="10px">Cell</th><th style="text-align:left;padding-left:5px;">Formula</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><th width="10px" style=" background-color: rgb(218,231,245);color: rgb(22,17,32)">B8</th><td style="text-align:left">=ROUNDDOWN(<font color="Blue">B6,4</font>)</td></tr><tr><th width="10px" style=" background-color: rgb(218,231,245);color: rgb(22,17,32)">F5</th><td style="text-align:left">=VLOOKUP(<font color="Blue">E5,B:C,2,FALSE</font>)</td></tr><tr><th width="10px" style=" background-color: rgb(218,231,245);color: rgb(22,17,32)">F6</th><td style="text-align:left">=VLOOKUP(<font color="Blue">E6,B:C,2,FALSE</font>)</td></tr><tr><th width="10px" style=" background-color: rgb(218,231,245);color: rgb(22,17,32)">F7</th><td style="text-align:left">=VLOOKUP(<font color="Blue">E7,B:C,2,FALSE</font>)</td></tr><tr><th width="10px" style=" background-color: rgb(218,231,245);color: rgb(22,17,32)">F8</th><td style="text-align:left">=VLOOKUP(<font color="Blue">E8,B:C,2,FALSE</font>)</td></tr><tr><th width="10px" style=" background-color: rgb(218,231,245);color: rgb(22,17,32)">F9</th><td style="text-align:left">=VLOOKUP(<font color="Blue">E9,B:C,2,FALSE</font>)</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></table><br />

Answer 1

VLOOKUP is not limited to 4 decimal places - you are hitting the problem that what is displayed by Excel does not match the actual internal binary value.

You can test VLOOKUP DP limits by generating some random numbers in A1:A10 using RAND, then copy paste values to get rid of RAND. Then use VLOOKUP(A1,$A1:$A10,1,false) in D1:D10. You won't get #N/A even though the numbers show as 15 decimal places if you expand the formats.