Excel 2010 vlookup #n/a error while value exists

Question

I am trying to use:

VLOOKUP to get the value of the ID colum in the below image:

The formula returns #N/A error although the value exists!

The formula I am using is:

=VLOOKUP(J13,$C$2:$D$10,1,FALSE)

Need help resolving this please. Thanks.

Answer 1

Use index() with match(). Vlookup() only works to the right of the indexing column.

So:

=index(C2:C10,match(J13,D2:D10,0))

Or you could do the lazy solution of swapping col C with Col D, but other formulae you have may then fail...