Google Sheets – VLOOKUP vs INDEX+MATCH

I had this same issue. I did a workaround which seems to work fine for me.

Instead of using something like

=vlookup(A2,BOM!A:B, 2,0)  

I just added a +0 at the end as my lookup was returning an integer.

So when I put

=vlookup(A2,BOM!A:B, 2,0)+0 

it works fine for me and my vlookup is now editable.

Also, if you already have a vlookup you may need to delete it and then reenter it.

This seems to be easiest solved with a script. If you have a list of philosopher names (column A) and their abbreviations (column B):

Name        | Abbreviation
--------------------------
Socrates    | soc
Plato       | pla
...

in a sheet named Philosophers, you should be able to use the following script function:

function getPhilosophersByAbbreviations(abbreviationsStr) {
  var philosophers = SpreadsheetApp.getActive().getSheetByName("Philosophers").getDataRange().getValues();
  var result = new Array();
  var abbreviations = abbreviationsStr.split(",");
  for (var a = 0; a < abbreviations.length; a++) {
    var abbreviation = abbreviations[a];
    for (var p = 0; p < philosophers.length; p++) {
      if (philosophers[p][1] == abbreviation) {
        result.push(philosophers[p][0]);
      }
    }
  }
  return result;
}

In your data sheet, you enter the formula in column B:

soc     | =getPhilosophersByAbbreviations(A1)
pla     | =getPhilosophersByAbbreviations(A2)
des     | =getPhilosophersByAbbreviations(A3)
heg     | =getPhilosophersByAbbreviations(A4)
heg,des | =getPhilosophersByAbbreviations(A5)

... and the full names will be displayed in columns B and so on.

Feel free to play with the example spreadsheet I set up.