[libreoffice-users] VLOOKUP & COUNTIF with numbers and text

VLOOKUP and COUNTIF will not find a numeric search value in a list of text
cells. They will, however, find a text value in a list of numeric cells. Why
one way but not the other? I am not a fan of strong typing in end-user
applications (it's fine for programming languages, but not all spreadsheet
users have a programmer's mindset or dilligence).

At least VLOOKUP and COUNTIF are mutually consistent - Excel will not work
either way in VLOOKUP, but works both ways (text in a list of numbers, and
number in a list of texts) in COUNTIF.

Having said that - if the list contains the text being looked for and the
same value as a number, then COUNTIF as text will find both and return 2. If
looking for it as a number, it only finds one of them. So, is 1 in the list
once or twice? That depends on how you look. Not ideal. This inconsistency
raises this behaviour from a "feature" to a "bug" in my opinion.

Phil.
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