Good practice when using EXCEL comparison function (VLOOKUP(), MATCH(), INDEX()) of values in text and number format

The "TRIM()" function in EXCEL helps to prevent error when comparing values in number format with value in text format. This "TRIM()" function will remove all the "space characters: in front of the value and will also convert any number format into a text format.
 



 

This function is particularly interesting when a large number of data need to be compared. It will ensure that you are comparing correctly text to text.

 

One of the good practice is therefore to add one more column to trim the keys of your database, and then to search the trimmed value into this column (works also with MATCH() function, INDEX() function, etc.)

 

 

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