When To Use Vlookup In Excel?

Use VLOOKUP when you need to find things in a table or a range by row. For example, look up a price of an automotive part by the part number, or find an employee name based on their employee ID.

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When should VLOOKUP be used?

When you need to find information in a large spreadsheet, or you are always looking for the same kind of information, use the VLOOKUP function. VLOOKUP works a lot like a phone book, where you start with the piece of data you know, like someone’s name, in order to find out what you don’t know, like their phone number.

What is the use of VLOOKUP formula in Excel?

VLOOKUP is an Excel function to look up data in a table organized vertically. VLOOKUP supports approximate and exact matching, and wildcards (* ?) for partial matches. Lookup values must appear in the first column of the table passed into VLOOKUP. The matched value from a table.

What are the benefits of VLOOKUP in Excel?

What are the benefits of using the VLOOKUP?

  • A VLOOKUP can lookup data automatically instead of a person having to do it manually, so time-saving is the first benefit that springs to mind.
  • VLOOKUP takes four arguments, in the following format:
  • VLOOKUP(Lookup_value, Table_array, Col_index_num, Range_lookup)

Should you ever use VLOOKUP?

VLOOKUP is a great function but has a few limitations: It can not lookup and return a value which is to the left of the lookup value.VLOOKUP would give a wrong result if you add/delete a new column in your data (as the column number value now refers to the wrong column).

How use VLOOKUP step by step?

How to use VLOOKUP in Excel

  1. Step 1: Organize the data.
  2. Step 2: Tell the function what to lookup.
  3. Step 3: Tell the function where to look.
  4. Step 4: Tell Excel what column to output the data from.
  5. Step 5: Exact or approximate match.

Is VLOOKUP hard to learn?

While Vlookup is only one function in the world of spreadsheet management, its perhaps the most valuable and impactful one you can learn. By the way, you can also use its sister function, Hlookup, to search for values in Horizontal rows instead of Vertical columns. Take 5 minutes and learn Vlookup.

Does VLOOKUP work on text?

Can VLOOKUP work with text as well as numbers? Yes. VLOOKUP can search for textual values just as well as it can search for numbers. The example above would search for the product names, which are text rather than numbers.

How do I compare two columns in Excel using VLOOKUP?

Follow these steps to compare two columns in Excel.

  1. Click the Compare two columns worksheet tab in the VLOOKUP Advanced Sample file.
  2. Add columns in your workbook so you have space for results.
  3. Type the first VLOOKUP formula in cell E2:
  4. Click Enter on your keyboard and drag the VLOOKUP formula down through cell C17.

How do I match data in Excel?

Compare Two Columns and Highlight Matches

  1. Select the entire data set.
  2. Click the Home tab.
  3. In the Styles group, click on the ‘Conditional Formatting’ option.
  4. Hover the cursor on the Highlight Cell Rules option.
  5. Click on Duplicate Values.
  6. In the Duplicate Values dialog box, make sure ‘Duplicate’ is selected.

What is better than VLOOKUP?

The superior alternative to VLOOKUP is INDEX MATCH. While VLOOKUP works fine in most cases, it tends to reveal flaws when you start using it in large and complex sheets. The INDEX MATCH formula is actually two different functions; INDEX and MATCH. array is range of cells or an array constant.

What are the disadvantages of VLOOKUP?

Limitations of VLOOKUP
One major limitation of VLOOKUP is that it cannot look to the left. The values to lookup must always be on the left-most column of the range and the values to return must be on the right hand side. You cannot use the standard VLOOKUP to look at the columns and the rows to find an exact match.

What can I use instead of VLOOKUP?

INDEX and MATCH works very well if your lookup data is not in the first column, or you want to look to the left of the lookup data, rather than to the right, which is all VLOOKUP can do.

What is the difference between VLOOKUP and match?

The main difference between VLOOKUP and INDEX MATCH is in column reference. VLOOKUP requires a static column reference whereas INDEX MATCH requires a dynamic column reference.INDEX MATCH allows you to click to choose which column you want to pull the value from. This leads to fewer errors.

Which is more efficient VLOOKUP or index match?

With sorted data and an approximate match, INDEX-MATCH is about 30% faster than VLOOKUP. With sorted data and a fast technique to find an exact match, INDEX-MATCH is about 13% faster than VLOOKUP.If you use VLOOKUP you must look up the same SKU for each column of information you need.

What is the difference between lookup and VLOOKUP?

The LOOKUP function. The function performs a rough match lookup either in a one-row or one-column range and returns the corresponding value from another one-row or one-column range.While VLOOKUP searches for the value in a column, HLOOKUP searches for the value in a row.

Does VLOOKUP have to be first column?

Remember that the lookup value should always be in the first column in the range for VLOOKUP to work correctly. For example, if your lookup value is in cell C2 then your range should start with C.

Why are Vlookups so hard?

So why does vlookup suck for this purpose? #1 The column you’re matching on must be the first column in your selected range. If the values you want are to pull are to the LEFT of what you’re matching on, too bad. Real data sets are not always like phone books.

How do I compare two lists in Excel?

A Ridiculously easy and fun way to compare 2 lists

  1. Select cells in both lists (select first list, then hold CTRL key and then select the second)
  2. Go to Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cells Rules > Duplicate Values.
  3. Press ok.
  4. There is nothing do here. Go out and play!

Does VLOOKUP work with dates?

To retrieve a value on a specific date from a table, you can use the VLOOKUP function. The VLOOKUP function locates the date value for Sept 4, and returns the value at the same row in the second column: 12,500.Note: the lookup value and the date values in the table must be valid Excel dates.

Can VLOOKUP return multiple rows?

Well, VLOOKUP is designed to return a single value, not multiple values. That is, VLOOKUP scans down the lookup range and stops at the first matching row … ignoring any additional matching rows. Once VLOOKUP finds a matching row, it shoots to the right to retrieve the related value from a single column.