Say Goodbye to VLOOKUP, and Hello to INDEX-MATCH

by Ben Klopfer | Oct 10, 2012 | Microsoft | 29 comments

VLOOKUP is a powerful and much-used Excel function. If you’re not familiar, it finds a lookup value in a table

and returns the corresponding value of another column. This is great for looking up information by reference. In

the example image above, Name is the lookup value, and it returns the matching Salary. If you are a power

Excel user, you are likely very familiar with this function. If not, here’s how it works:

=VLOOKUP(Lookup_value, Table_array, Col_index_num, Range_lookup))

Lookup_value – The value you want to find in the lookup value column

Lookup_value – The table range containing columns for both the lookup and return values

Col_index_num – The index number for the column containing the return values

Range_lookup – The type of match: Nearest Less Than (TRUE), or Exact (FALSE) [optional]

VLOOKUP, though powerful and useful, is not without its limitations. In fact, it can be dangerous because of

some unexpected effects and behaviors. If you use VLOOKUP, please read on to learn about these issues.

This equally applies to VLOOKUP’s sister function HLOOKUP (which does horizontal lookups instead of

vertical lookups) and another similar function, LOOKUP. I have provided a safer and more flexible alternative

lookup method, which I use virtually everywhere in place of VLOOKUP.

First, I’ll explain some of VLOOKUP’s limitations:

1. Your data range is limited to a table .  That means the data you are looking up has to be in a standard tabular

form. You cannot use VLOOKUP to find a lookup value in a different table, sheet, or offset row. This limits the

ways you can display your data, as anything you want to lookup must be available in a standard table format in

your spreadsheet.

2. VLOOKUP always searches   the leftmost column of the specified table to find the lookup value.  Again, this

limits your choices in presenting data as lookup values always have to be to the left of the return values. This

sometimes means you must have multiple copies of tables in order, think far ahead when creating tables that

might be used in lookup, or reorder columns after the fact simply to use VLOOKUP.

3. You can only specify the return value column by index number.  This means there is no way to include a static

reference to the return value column. If someone adds a column between the lookup value column and return

value column, it will break your VLOOKUP and you have to manually increase the column index number in the

formulas. This is a maintenance nightmare.

4. VLOOKUP provides a very limited approximate match feature .  The only aproximate match option finds the

nearest “less than” value. Unless you want that type of behavior, you’re out of luck and can’t use it.

Now, here are some dangers of VLOOKUP:

1. By default, VLOOKUP uses approximate match.  If this is how you want it to function, then great… However, in

many cases you want an exact value returned. It gives no indication it is picking a closest match result. If you

do not want this behavior (which is most of the time, I have found…), you remember to explicitly set the

Range_lookup argument in the formula to FALSE. Range_lookup is optional, and not a very descrive name of

this feature, so it is often overlooked. This quirk is exasperated by the second danger…

2. VLOOKUP can provide false results if the table is not sorted in ascending order!  This is an issue when you use

the approximate match feature, which is TRUE by default. Basically, VLOOKUP starts at the top of the table

and goes down row by row until to gets to a valie less than or equal to the lookup value. If your table is not

sorted in ascending order, this can give false results, as the formula stops processing rows immediately after

finding a “match.”

Sufficiently scared? Checking your spreadsheets for issues now?? The answer to these problems and

limitations is the INDEX-MATCH lookup method. This methods uses two functions together to provide a more

safe and flexible lookup feature. Here’s how each function works, independently:

INDEX returns the value at the intersection of a row and column in a given range.

Formula: =INDEX(Array, Row_num, Column_num)

Array - The range of cells

Row_num - The row to return data from

Column_num – The column to return the data from [optional]

MATCH returns a position of an item in an array that matches a value.

Formula: =MATCH(Lookup_value, Lookup_array, Match_type)

Lookup_value – The value you want to find in the lookup value array

Lookup_array – The range containing lookup values

Match_type - Exact (0), Nearest Less Than (-1), or Nearest Greater Than (1) [optional]

Combining the two functions, you are able to effectively beat the limitations and dangers of VLOOKUP. You

can build a lookup that allows you to specify the lookup column and return value column completely

independently, and also control of the nature of the approximate match, if not exact. The arrays are ranges and

you can specific Column_num in place of Row_num, which mean you are not limited to using columns only;

this can be used in place of HLOOKUP. It still has the approximate match feature as nearest “less than” by

default, and carries the same sort warnings as VLOOKUP. Here’s how the combined function works:

=INDEX(Return_value_range, MATCH(Lookup_value, Lookup_value_range, Match_type))

Return_value_range - The range that holds the return values

Lookup_value – The value you want to find in the lookup value array

Lookup_value_range – The range containing lookup values

Match_type - Exact (0), Nearest Greater Than (-1), or Nearest Less Than (1)

Enjoy, and use in good health!

Example of a INDEX-MATCH formula exposed in an Excel spreadsheet

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29 Comments

1.Kiz on July 4, 2013 at 10:18 am

DUDE! This saved my sanity! Thanks so much.Reply

2.Blue on August 7, 2013 at 10:34 pm

um, Vlookup(target,range,match(colHeader,TableHeaders,0),false)

What’s your problem with this?Reply

3.Nikolay on August 25, 2013 at 7:20 am

Hello!

Thank you, I found this interesting, but isn’t your variant limited too? Ideally I would use “like” options not just exact,

less, greater.

Any ideas?

Thanks!Reply

4.Ben Klopfer on August 26, 2013 at 5:54 pm

Nikolay,

Yes, it is still limited. I believe you can use wildcards by appending asterisks (e.g., “*”&[VALUE]&”*”) on both sides of

your lookup value. Give that a try, maybe it will help expand the scope to what you need. Best of luck!

Thanks,

BenReply

oJim Adams on January 6, 2014 at 4:52 pm

Can you tell me if I can use vlookup, excel 2003, to search for results within another sheet or folder. This is driving me

crazy.Reply

Ben Klopfer on January 7, 2014 at 11:42 am

Jim,

You can certainly reference another Sheet or another Excel file (which is what I think you mean by “folder”). Here’s how

to format your references for those situations. These examples demonstrate selecting a table of cells, A1 to B4.

If cells are the the current sheet: A1:B4

If cells are in another sheet: SheetName!A1:B4

If cells are in another document, same folder: [filename.xslx]SheetName!A1:B4

If cells are in another document, other folder: ‘C:\path\to\file\[filename.xslx]SheetName’!A1:B4

You can use that format for any of the references in VLOOKUP or INDEX-MATCH, or any formula for that matter.

Hope that helps!

Reply

5.Mike Franklin on September 15, 2013 at 12:04 am

Awesome. Worked exactly as described.

Thank you very much!Reply

6.steve on October 24, 2013 at 9:13 am

Great article. Exactly what I was looking for. ThanksReply

7.Rick Meador on November 9, 2013 at 2:04 pm

Hi, Ben. Very informative. Thanks.

Question though. I have a table with a column of Zip codes (cb2:cb71). These are the Zip Codes for a package PICKUP

location. DELIVERY location Zip Codes are (cc1:dv2).

The charge for pickup and delivery (zip to zip) is in the table.

I have tried to use vlookup doing this, even index and match. I keep getting #N/A errors. How can I matchup the charge to

the pu zip and del zip? Thanks, RickReply

oBen Klopfer on December 3, 2013 at 3:43 pm

Rick, if you want to match on multiple columns like pickup and delivery ZIP codes, one way to do it is to concatenate

each individual combined possibility into a single hidden column. Then, use the INDEX MATCH solution on that hidden

column to pull your price from the table accordingly. You may have to reformat your sheet a little (since it sounds like

you’ve got multiple delivery columns), or perhaps use a new tab in your workbook to do some table transformation

behind the scenes. Does that make sense? There are number of other more complicated options as well, such as using a

pivot table. Best of luck!Reply

8.Oliver on November 18, 2013 at 5:33 am

Great solution!

Ben for MVP!Reply

9.Amanda on December 2, 2013 at 11:05 am

Hi I am not very experienced in excel but I find that vlookup lets me choose the data array from another sheet whereas the

index-match gives me N/A. Please advise. I am making a withholding excel sheet that computes everything itself once

gross has been added. State taxes are in a table with greater than to less than equal to.Reply

oBen Klopfer on December 3, 2013 at 3:45 pm

Amanda, there’s no reason why INDEX MATCH shouldn’t work across multiple sheets… There must be something else

going on. If you can post some more details, perhaps I can help figure out what’s going on.Reply

10.Josh on December 18, 2013 at 12:30 pm

I’ve been trying to get this to work with my data for a while now – maybe you can give me a pointer. I am trying to

reconcile certain transactions in my ledger to bank account transactions. I’ve made a Vlookup that is pretty lengthy, but

works for about 80% of my straight-across matches (sometimes our GL lumps up two or more bank transactions as one

journal entry). But the real problem is when I have multiple occurences of the same transaction amount, but multiple

times throughout the month. I got a Match Index function to work with one test transaction, but then it doesn’t apply to

the rest of my entries.

Here’s an example of the columns I’m working with. All of our GL entries are on the left side, and we have a separate tab

that contains the bank transactions to match against.

Trans. Type | Reference | Date | Amount Amount | Date | Ref Number | D/C

AP | Check Paid | 15-Nov | 2500.00

Bank Data

Amount | Date | Ref Number | D/C

2500.00 | 3-Nov| etc..

2500.00 |12 -Nov| etc…

2500.00 | 20-Nov| etc…

2500.00 | 30-Nov| etc…

The tricky thing is that only first two columns of data that the bank provides will match anything we have in our GL. And

the bank transactions may be a couple days, or even a couple weeks, away from the GL entry for the corresponding

transaction.

Any ideas?Reply

oBen on January 3, 2014 at 10:09 am

Josh,

Wow, that sounds like a tough situation. Looks like you don’t really have reliable or identifiable fields to do the match.

Are there any other fields (reference number, etc.) you can use to match more reliably? If not, my only other through is to

use some chronological magic and forego the dates entirely. Meaning, you can make column in your bank data that adds

an date-based index (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) for like amounts in the same month. Then, do the same on the GL data and match

using the index so the exact date won’t have to match. That way, the first 2500.00 bank data entry can match with the first

2500.00 GL entry, and so on. Make sense? Not sure if it will work for you, but worth pondering perhaps.

Best of luck!Reply

11.Louisa on December 19, 2013 at 3:55 pm

Hi Ben,

I am also somewhat inexperienced with Excel and need some help with either of these functions, whichever would best

work. I have one sheet of customers and another generated by the post office with tracking numbers. I need the tracking

numbers inserted corresponding to customer names on my own spreadsheet. I have tried vlookup and seem to always

reach an error message. Thanks for your help!Reply

oBen on January 3, 2014 at 10:19 am

Louisa,

The correct formula might look something like this:

=INDEX(PostOfficeSheet!B:B,MATCH(CustomerSheet!A1,PostOfficeSheet!A:A,0))

PostOfficeSheet is the name of the sheet with the PO data. Column A has the names, and column B has the tracking

numbers.

CustomerSheet is the name of the sheet with the Customer data. Column A has the names, and put the above formula in

column B to get the tracking number.

Hope that points you more in the right direction!Reply

12.Peter on December 30, 2013 at 8:21 pm

Awesome…. this was driving me mental…. thank you very muchReply

13.Steven on January 2, 2014 at 9:56 pm

I believe this is helping me head in the right direction but I still cannot get the desired results.

What I am trying to do:

I am currently working a man-hours sheet of my field workers (50+ workers), their job class’ vary (ie. LBR 1, LB 2,…

LBR 6, 45% CARP, 80% CARP, JT CARP, MASON, PLASTER MASON ETC) I am tasked with attempting to sum

man hours daily by class ie laborer (LBR 1-LBR 6) Carpenters, Masons etc.

I would LIKE to be able to search partial text of job class like “lbr” so I can find ALL laborers in column A1 and have the

correlating hours summed in B1. “Carpenters” A2 and Their total Hours B2 and so on. I’m ok with having a hidden list

populate and I then sum and tidy up in a nice neat table later. I just cannot find a way to do ‘if *this cell* says “lbr” at all,

display hours from *this cell* if not, don’t display’ I can drag and sum later.

Better yet! Since every “lbr”, for example, shares the row with the hours I’m concerned with, if I could search and sum

EVERY lbr’s corresponding hours into 1 cell that would be excellent. By the end of this project I’m going to have 20

working classes and over 50 workers and I’ll need daily sums of each one.

Any direction would be appreciated!

StevenReply

oBen on January 3, 2014 at 10:33 am

Steven,

Sounds like you might want to try using the SUMIF function instead of INDEX-MATCH or VLOOKUP. As with both of

the latter, you can also use wildcards in SUMIF to do partial matches.

Your formula might look something like this:

=SUMIF(DataSheet!A:A,”*”&SummarySheet!A1&”*”,DataSheet!B1)

DataSheet is the name of the sheet with the raw data. Column A has the labor code and column B has the hours worked.

SummarySheet is the name of the sheet with the summary data. Column A contains the full or partial labor code and

column B has the formula above (to get the sum of hours worked).

Hope that gives you an idea of how to tackle this!Reply

14.Steven on January 3, 2014 at 3:11 pm

Ben,

SUMIF is definitely the way to go! Thank you, the use of wildcards and SUMIF has made this so much more simple.

Happy new year!Reply

15.Phil on January 7, 2014 at 10:48 am

Hi there! The Match_type parameters (-1) and (1) work the other way around don’t they? Also the sort order of the lookup

values does matter if using these parameters to get the approximate match – you said there is no sorting requirement? I’m

using Excel 2010..Reply

oBen Klopfer on January 7, 2014 at 11:28 am

Phil, good catches! You’re correct on both counts. I will have to update this posting to reflect those changes. Thanks!Reply

16.jo db on February 16, 2014 at 8:44 am

Sir,

My worksheet is about witholding tax on compensation … which, I am doing manually (very) … and as much as i would

like to use v-lookup function, i am afraid i can’t … for i still have to learn how to use it … i can say , that i am very

familiar with the basic excel … so, i a am confident that my work is correct … but, i wanted to improve my knowledge

using advance excel,to minimize time in preparing the tax computation and finally, preparing the alphalist …

Please help …Reply

oBen Klopfer on February 18, 2014 at 4:58 pm

jo db, you should be able to use the INDEX-MATCH formula I discuss in this post to effectively do the same thing as

VLOOKUP… Is there somewhere in particular you are getting stuck? I can help if you provide a little more information

on where you are having a problem!Reply

17.Kim on February 18, 2014 at 5:47 pm

Thank you for sharing this awesome tip! I recently mastered the VLOOKUP after trying to learn it for at least five

years…It was the sorting that kept me thrown off course.Reply

18.Sneha on February 21, 2014 at 2:41 am

seriously, I will not use vlookup henceforth…index match is just perfect…Reply

19.issue with vlookup and index, match on February 23, 2014 at 8:33 pm

I am trying to extract the agent associated with a supervisor from a master file to the supervisors worksheet, I am

accomplishing this by vlookup(supername, supernames,agent names,2,false) and similar index, match I have it working

however it stops working after 5 agents, I got it working in vlookup but could duplicate the result on other supervisor

pages, is my excel corrupt or is there a better way?Reply

oBen Klopfer on February 24, 2014 at 12:25 pm

That sounds frustrating! Are you using absolute cell references appropriately, using the “$” in your formula’s ranges?

Sometimes what you’re describing can happen when you copy a formula to other cells with non-absolute ranges. If that

doesn’t work, give me some more details and perhaps I can help!Reply

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