A new analyst's customer-tier VLOOKUP returns #N/A for half the rows. They wrote:
=VLOOKUP(A2, $D$2:$E$9, 2, FALSE)
The customer names in column A look like real customer names. The reference table also looks right. Yet the lookups fail.
Hint: open one of the cells in column A and look closely at where the text starts and ends. CSV imports preserve quoted leading and trailing whitespace, and VLOOKUP is whitespace-sensitive. "Acme Corp " (trailing space) does not match "Acme Corp".
Your task:
- Build the (clean) reference table on the sheet, e.g., in D2:E9.
- Write a corrected formula in column B that returns the right tier for every row, regardless of stray whitespace in column A.
Reference (clean — copy these as-is):
| Customer | Tier |
|---|
| Acme Corp | Pro |
| Globex | Enterprise |
| Initech | Starter |
| Hooli | Business |
| Pied Piper | Pro |
| Vandelay | Starter |
| Sterling Cooper | Business |
| Stark Industries | Enterprise |
Graded cells: B2, B4, B5 — chosen specifically because each row carries a different whitespace pattern (trailing, leading, double-trailing). A candidate who hand-edits column A to strip spaces will still pass these, but the lesson is to handle it at the formula site for the next CSV import.
Open this problem on a desktop to attempt it.