using vlookup function
TRANSCRIPT
PURPOSE
VLOOKUP is an Excel
function that can pull data from one worksheet to another, based
on a primary key.
Ex: given a spreadsheet of usage data and a spreadsheet of pricing
data, prices can be pulled into the usage spreadsheet using the
ISSN for each item.
Definitions
Source spreadsheet
the spreadsheet from which
you will pull data (in our example, the pricing data)
Destination spreadsheet
the spreadsheet into
which you are adding data (the usage data)
Primary key
the column that uniquely identifies each row and is
present in both spreadsheets (the ISSN)
Source table
the subset of the spreadsheet
that contains both the primary key column and all columns from which you are pulling
information
KEY POINTS
TO REMEMBER
Decide what column you are going to use for your
primary key
Identify your source table
Make sure that your primary key column is the left-most column of your source table. This might involve moving
some columns around
Source Table Primary Key Column
Copy the column titles for your source table from the source spreadsheet to the destination spreadsheet.
Using VLOOKUP
Click on the first cell of the first column in your destination spreadsheet where you would like to insert data from your source spreadsheet.
From the Formulas tab, under Lookup & Reference, choose VLOOKUP
The Function Arguments
window opens. Click on the first input box
(lookup_value), then click the box in your DESTINATION
sheet that contains the PRIMARY KEY for that row.
Primary
Key
Click in the Table_array box,
then switch to the source worksheet and select the entire
source table. You can now hand-edit the
selection further if you need to in the box.
In the col_index_num box, put the column number that you want to
pull data from in the source spreadsheet, not the letter.
For example, if you want data from Column D, and your Primary Key
(first column of your source table) is in Column B, you’ll put in 3.
(column B is 1, C is 2, D is 3).
For Range_lookup, enter “FALSE” to indicate that only exact matches for the primary key should be returned. Click OK.
Once the formula is entered once, you can use fill down to finish the column, but first you need to fix some variables. Put a $ before the column (letter) label indicating lookup value. Put a $ before the column (letter) AND row (number) labels indicating source table
You can now use fill-down to pull in values for the rest of the column To use the formula for other columns, copy and paste the first row, changing only the col_index_num variable, then fill-down as necessary.