In the previous post in this series, Mastering VLOOKUP, we learned how to look up the 2nd, 3rd, 4th or nth item from a data set. Today, we will be expanding on that by looking at how to return all the matching values in the dataset. Plus, we will combine this with partial matches, so … Read more
In this series, Mastering VLOOKUP we have covered a lot of ground. But this post is one of the most fiendish of all. VLOOKUP, by its design, is intended to return the first match it finds. But, if we want the 2nd, 3rd or nth VLOOKUP it not so easy. Often people resort to helper … Read more
The 2nd argument in the VLOOKUP function is the table_array. This is the range of cells which contains the data to be used within the VLOOKUP function. For example, in the code below A1:C9 is the table_array. =VLOOKUP(“O Redding”,A1:C9,3,FALSE) When using the VLOOKUP function, we often know how many rows there are in the data, … Read more
There are times when our data is laid out in columns and rows. In these circumstances, we may need to VLOOKUP row and column at the same time. Look at the example below, how can we look up the Low for Jun? This post will show you how. VLOOKUP row and column with VLOOKUP & MATCH … Read more
Have you ever played Scrabble? It is the game where you receive points for constructing words from letters printed on small plastic tiles. In my opinion, the best tile to get is always the blank tile. It doesn’t score any points, but it can be used to represent any letter at all. Therefore, if you … Read more
Most Excel users think that VLOOKUP can only be used with a single criterion; until a few months ago I believed this was also the case. In the past I had used INDEX/MATCH or helper columns because I had not appreciated how much could be achieved with the VLOOKUP & CHOOSE combination. We have already … Read more
Unfortunately, VLOOKUP, whilst powerful, simple and easy to use, is one of the least flexible functions in Excel. Just imagine for a moment that we have entered the following formula into Cell E6 (see screenshot below). =VLOOKUP(E4,A2:B10,2,0) This formula is returning the value from the 2nd column (Column B) – result 21. But, what happens … Read more
VLOOKUP is a very useful formula; most advanced Excel users still encounter situations where it would be a suitable solution. But a basic VLOOKUP has one major flaw; it cannot lookup a value to the left. The value being looked up must always be in the first column and the value returned must always be … Read more
I hardly ever use an approximate match with VLOOKUP due to the risk of getting an incorrect result. But I learned this little trick – which provided almost unbelievable speed increases. The problem With a VLOOKUP an exact match (i.e. including FALSE as the last argument) is a slow method of calculation. It will search … Read more
VLOOKUP is one of the most powerful functions in Excel. It allows you to look up a value from a table based on a search term. A simple example would be a where you had a long list of employees and their telephone numbers. You could use VLOOKUP to find the telephone number of any … Read more