Way to overcome Excel Vlookup function limit of 256 characters

Question

I have a excel array with multiple values. Some are less than 256 characters and some have a length greater than 256.

When I tried to do a VLookup using a sample str

Answer 1

I had the same problem and I've wrote this custom primitive vlookup. It doesn't care about the length of your cells' values.

Function betterSearch(searchCell, A As Range, B As Range)
        For Each cell In A
            If cell.Value = searchCell.Value Then
                    betterSearch = B.Cells(cell.Row, 1)
                    Exit For
            End If
            betterSearch = "Not found"
        Next

End Function

PS Can't help but wonder why the original VLOOKUP written by professionals is implemented in this particular case more poorly than this 10-lined func?