title: Excel VLOOKUP - not detecting matches
body: <p>I am trying to use a VLOOKUP in the XL worksheet linked below.  I am trying to lookup based on a text string (9 digits numbers and sometimes includes an X), it looks like it has worked OK but it has not picked up all the cases.</p>
  
  <p>Here is the formula :-</p>
  
  <pre><code>=VLOOKUP(A2, Lookup!$A$2:$B$8845, 2, FALSE)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The lookup data itself is in the second tab, called 'Lookup'. </p>
  
  <p>There are some cases where the formula returns "#N/A", as if the match cannot be found in the lookup list, but where in fact there is a match in the list e.g. 300431419 (row 27 in the main data sheet). I've checked for extra spaces or anything else that would prohibit a match but cannot see anything. </p>
  
  <p>I am using the FALSE flag in the formula which I understood to mean an exact match is needed and the lookup data did not need sorting. Both columns have been set to 'Text' format.</p>
  
  <p>Can anyone help?</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0IxepT0FbEFMGlCYWM5dHl4Rm8/view?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0IxepT0FbEFMGlCYWM5dHl4Rm8/view?usp=sharing</a></p>