MS Excel 2013

How To Use VLOOKUP In Microsoft Excel Use VLOOKUP function to find data you don’t know in a large Excel spreadsheet, by entering a data you know

VLOOKUP function contains of arguments

in parenthesis, separated by comas

1st argument is a cell where you en-ter known data or information.

Here cell K5.

2nd argument is the cell range or where you want to search. Here D2:I16

3rd argument shows which column within the range contains result; count columns starting from the left within the range. Here No.6.

4th argument determines whether we need exact or approximate match FALSE for exact, TRUE for approximate

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MS Excel 2013

Step By Step

1.Start by selecting a cell where you want to see the results.

K6 for example.

2.Start typing VLOOKUP function like this =VLOOKUP(). Excel automatically gives

the order of arguments that have to be entered in the function.

Equal sign has to be entered before the function!

3.Put the cursor between parenthesis and type the name of a cell where you will

enter student’s name, or the data you know, followed by a coma.

4. Enter the range of data beginning with the first cell in the leftmost column of

the range “D2”, enter colon sign “ : “, and the last cell in the rightmost column of

the range “I16”, followed by coma. The range begins with the column that con-

tains data you know, and ends with a column where the results are.

5. Enter number that says in which column of the range is data that contains result,

followed by coma.

6.Enter the word FALSE to get the exact match.

(Entering the word TRUE, Excel returns approximate match.)

7. Press Enter to finish the function. Now you can enter student’s name in the cell

designated for the known data (K5).

8. Enter students last name and press Enter. The result is displayed in the cell that

contains your function.

Let’s say you want to find out what course is a certain student enrolled in, from the previous table

MS Excel 2013

How to lookup data in another worksheet

If you have values in more

than one sheet that you

want to look up, Excel helps

aggregate those values , so

you can see them in one

sheet.

Data range is always on the

page that contains results

(here $ amounts)

For typing the function follow the same proce-

dure as in previous example, but add the name

of another sheet followed by exclamation point

in front of the cell range argument .

Payments!A2:B16

To find out how much Evelyn Smith paid use her

ID number to look up the information. In a cell

on “Information” sheet enter function as follows

=VLOOKUP(L2, Payments!A2:B16,2,FALSE)

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MS Excel 2013

How to copy the function

If you would like to list all the amounts paid, from previous example, next to the students’ names instead of looking them up one at the time, you need to copy the LOOKUP function. For that, you need to modify it a little bit.

Tip 1: Use absolute cell references by adding a dollar sign to your argu-ments.

Step 1: Instead of entering a blank cell as your first argument, enter the name of the first cell that will contain data you are looking for. Add the dollar sign in front of it. Here $A2

Step 2: For the second argument add dollar sign in front of names of the cells which determine the data range , like this

Payments!$A2:$B16

Steps 3 and 4: 3rd and 4th arguments remain the same.

Did you know: Dollar sign is what makes it an absolute cell reference

and, in this case, forces VLOOKUP to use only values in column A.

Tip 2: Grab the Fill handle and drag down the column.

That’s it!

MS Excel 2013

How to find a partial match

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If you look at the 4th argument

in the function, you will notice

that we put TRUE instead of

FALSE, which let’s us enter

amounts that don’t match the

values listed in the table

This table calculates discounts

depending on how much money

a buyer spent. The buyer isn’t

limited to spend only the

amounts that have matches in

the Discount column.

Cell range

MS Excel 2013

Important to remember

VLOOKUP is a predefined formula you can use to look things up in an Excel list or in Excel’s tables.

“V” in VLOOKUP stands for vertical, which means the data in the table must be arranged vertically, with data in rows

VLOOKUP finds results that are in the same row. You can have data in the column/s left to the lookup range, but VLOOKUP won’t look up data that are out of

the range.

VLOOKUP requires the table to be structured so that lookup values appear in the left-most column. The data you want to retrieve (result values) can appear in

any column to the right. VLOOKUP can only get data from columns to the right of first column in the table .

If you need to copy and paste VLOOKUP function, you can save time and aggravation by using absolute references for the lookup value and table array. Pay

attention to put dollar signs for absolute values in right places!

Always separate your arguments with comas.

VLOOKUP has two matching modes. Use FALSE for exact and TRUE for approximate match. By default it will use the approximate match.

Numbers entered as text can cause a match error. Make sure that the first column in the cell range is formatted as Number.