vlookup with odd characters

[tfwil]

I am using vlookup to compare current values in a windows services dump vs older values, so my lookup table looks something like this...

COM Host;Started
COM+ Event System;Started
COM+ System Application;Started

vlookup has no problem finding the value "Started" for "COM Host", but returns #NA for any of the values with embedded "+" characters. If there a way to escape the string in the lookup , ie instead of "=VLOOKUP(A2;servs0.$A$2:$E$155;2;0)", I'd like "=VLOOKUP(actualstring(A2);servs0.$A$2:$E$155;2;0)". And how would that apply in the range itself?

[RickRandom]

I don't know a direct solution, but perhaps create a helper column replacing the + with something more amenable to VLOOKUP

=LEFT(A1;FIND("+";A1)-1)&" "&RIGHT(A1;LEN(A1)-FIND("+";A1))

but perhaps using a database might be more effective (not that I know much about databases ).

[tfwil]

Thanks for the quick reply. I tried inserting a new column A in both sheets, and then:
IF(ISERR(FIND("+";B2));B2;LEFT(B2;FIND("+";B2)-1)&" "&RIGHT(B2;LEN(B2)-FIND("+";B2)))

But now I see it doesn't like parends either. Seems like the parser for vlookup should not be interpreting the resolved content of a cell. Guess I'll need to write a macro, but it seems like I shouldn't have to.

[RickRandom]

[tfwil]

Sorry, I mean parens, like left parenthesis and right parenthesis, as in

Intel(R) Alert Service

Ended up with this, after creating a new column, eliminating "+","(" and ")" and replacing with ":" which it seems to like.

=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(B2;"(";":");")";":");"+";":")

Thanks for all your help