VLOOKUP

Introduction

Use VLOOKUP when you need to find things in a table or a range. For example, to find an employee name/address/email etc. Based on their employee ID.

In its simplest form, the VLOOKUP function says:

=VLOOKUP(What you want to look up, where you want to look for it, the column number in the range containing the value to return, return an Approximate or Exact match – indicated as 1/TRUE, or 0/FALSE).

Vertical lookup. Searches down the first column of a range for a key and returns the value of a specified cell in the row found.

There are four pieces of information that you will need in order to build the VLOOKUP syntax:

1. The value you want to look up, also called the lookup value.

2. The range where the lookup value is located. 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.

3. The column number in the range that contains the return value. For example, if you specify B2:D11 as the range, you should count B as the first column, C as the second, and so on.

4. Optionally, you can specify TRUE if you want an approximate match or FALSE if you want an exact match of the return value. If you don't specify anything, the default value will always be TRUE or approximate match.

Now put all of the above together as follows:

=VLOOKUP(lookup value, range containing the lookup value, the column number in the range containing the return value, Approximate match (TRUE) or Exact match (FALSE)).

Syntax:

VLOOKUP(search_key, range, index, [is_sorted])

• search_key – The value or search key which we know or the value to search for. Example : Employee Id.

• range – The range to consider for the search. The first column in the range is searched for the key specified in search key.

• index – The column index of the value to be returned, where the first column in range is numbered 1.

  • If index is not between 1 and the number of columns in range, #VALUE! is returned.

• is_sorted – [TRUE by default] – Indicates whether the column to be searched (the first column of the specified range) is sorted. FALSE is recommended in most cases.

• It’s recommended to set is_sorted to FALSE. If set to FALSE, an exact match is returned. If there are multiple matching values, the content of the cell corresponding to the first value found is returned, and #N/A is returned if no such value is found.

• If is_sorted is TRUE or omitted, the nearest match (less than or equal to the search key) is returned. If all values in the search column are greater than the search key, #N/A is returned.

• Example:

To Find the Rating of Rishabh Pant From the given Table

Step1:

write the formula 

=vlookup(

Step2:

Type or Select the search key

we have typed Rishabh pant because we want to find out the Rating of R.Pant in The given table

=Vlookup("Rishabh Pant",

Step3:

Select the Range

we are selecting the table because the output data we require is in the table

=Vlookup("Rishabh Pant",A2:D7,

Step4:

Type the Index

as we require the rating and it is in the 3rd column we are entering the index as 3

=Vlookup("Rishabh Pant",A2:D7,3,

Final Step:

Type 0 to return Exact Match

=Vlookup("Rishabh Pant",A2:D7,3,0)

Result:

so we get the result as 801 which is the rating of R.Pant

 Video Link:

**Note: Please make a copy of practice sheet before practicing

Practice Sheet : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lHoDLFkukkbX9-oRGCshrcaDMHgiBM1PH-dRsuAnjvQ/edit#gid=0
                                                                         

By Zahid Wasim

for any queries and further learning please mail me at support@majesticdigitalstore.com