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23 things you should know

Topics
about VLOOKUP
Video training
by DAVE BRUNS | September 11, 2015 Function Guide
Formula Examp
Formula
When you want to pull information from a table, the
Criteria
Excel VLOOKUP function is a great solution. The ability
Excel Shortcuts
to dynamically lookup and retrieve information from a
Pivot Tables
table is a game-changer for many users, and you'll nd
101 Excel
VLOOKUP everywhere.
Functions
And yet, although VLOOKUP is a relatively easy to use, Excel Tables
there is plenty that can go wrong. One reason is that INDEX and
VLOOKUP has a major design aw — by default, it MATCH
assumes you're OK with an approximate match. Which Excel Charts
you probably aren't. Conditional
Formatting
This can cause results that look completely normal, even Custom
though they are totally incorrect. Trust me, this is NOT Number
something you want to try to explain to your boss, after Formats
she's already sent your spreadsheet to management :) Data Validation
Nested IF
Read below learn how to manage this challenge, and
examples
discover other tips for mastering the Excel VLOOKUP
Formula
function.
challenges
How-to videos
1. How VLOOKUP works
Excel glossary
VLOOKUP is a function to lookup up and retrieve data in Excel people
a table. The "V" in VLOOKUP stands for vertical, which Excel books
means the data in the table must be arranged vertically, Recent
with data in rows. (For horizontally structured data, see comments
HLOOKUP).
Key functions
If you have a well structured table, with information
IF function
arranged vertically, and a column on the left which you
VLOOKUP funct
can use to match a row, you can probably use VLOOKUP.
SUMIFS
VLOOKUP requires that the table be structured so that function
lookup values appear in the left-most column. The data COUNTIFS
you want to retrieve (result values) can appear in any function
column to the right. When you use VLOOKUP, imagine INDEX
that every column in the table is numbered, starting from function
the left. To get a value from a particular column, simply MATCH
supply the appropriate number as the "column index". In function
the example below, we want to look up the email address, SUMPRODUCT
so we are using the number 4 for column index: function
 Hi - I'm Da
and I
run
Exceljet
with my
wife, Lisa. Our goal is
to help you work
faster in Excel. We
create short videos,
and clear examples of
formulas, functions,
pivot tables,
conditional
formatting, and
In the above table, the employee IDs are in column 1 on charts. Read more.
the left and the email addresses are in column 4 to the
right.

To use VLOOKUP, you supply 4 pieces of information, or

"arguments":

1. The value you are looking for (lookup_value)

2. The range of cells that make up the table
(table_array)
3. The number of the column from which to retrieve
a result (column_index)
4. The match mode (range_lookup, TRUE =
approximate, FALSE = exact)

Video: How to use VLOOKUP (3 min)

If you still don't get the basic idea of VLOOKUP, Jon

Acampora, over at Excel Campus, has a great explanation
based on the Starbucks coffee menu.

2. VLOOKUP only looks right

Perhaps the biggest limitation of VLOOKUP is that it can

only look to the right to retrieve data.

This means that VLOOKUP can only get data from

columns to the right of rst column in the table.  When
lookup values appear in the rst (leftmost) column, this
limitation doesn't mean much, since all other columns
are already to the right. However, if the lookup column
appears inside the table somewhere, you'll only be able
to lookup values from columns to the right of that
column. You'll also have to supply a smaller table to
VLOOKUP that starts with the lookup column.

You can overcome this limitation by using INDEX and

MATCH instead of VLOOKUP.
3. VLOOKUP always nds the rst match

If the lookup column contains duplicate values,

VLOOKUP will match the rst value only. If the rst
column in the table contains no duplicates, this
obviously doesn't matter. However, if the rst column
does contain duplicate values, VLOOKUP will only match
the rst instance. In this example, we are using
VLOOKUP to nd a rst name. Although there are two
"Janet"s in the list, VLOOKUP matches only the rst:

4. VLOOKUP is not case-sensitive

When looking up a value, VLOOKUP does not process

upper and lower case text differently. To VLOOKUP, a
product code like "PQRF" is identical to "pqrf". In the
example below, we are looking for uppercase "JANET" but
VLOOKUP does not distinguish case so it simply matches
"Janet", since that's the rst match it nds:

We also offer paid training for VLOOKUP and

INDEX/MATCH

5. VLOOKUP has two matching modes

VLOOKUP has two modes of operation: exact match and

approximate match. In most cases, you'll probably want
to use VLOOKUP in exact match mode. This makes sense
when you want to lookup information based on a unique
key of some kind, for example, product information
based on a product code, or movie data based on a movie
title:
The formula in H6 to lookup year based on an exact
match of movie title is:

= VLOOKUP(H4,B5:E9,2,FALSE) // FALSE =
exact match

However, you'll want to use approximate mode in cases

where you're not matching on a unique id, but rather
you're looking up the "best match" or the "best category".
For example, perhaps you're looking up postage based on
weight, looking up tax rate based on income, or looking
up a commission rate based on a monthly sales number.
In these cases, you likely won't nd the exact lookup
value in the table. Instead, you want VLOOKUP to get
you the best match for a given lookup value.

The formula in D5 does an approximate match to retrieve

the correct commission:

= VLOOKUP(C5,$G$5:$H$10,2,TRUE) // TRUE =
approximate match

6. Caution: VLOOKUP uses approximate match

by default

Exact and approximate matching in VLOOKUP is

controlled by the 4th argument, called "range lookup".
This name is not intuitive, so you'll just have to
memorize how it works.

For exact match, use FALSE or 0. For approximate match,

set range_lookup to TRUE or 1:

= VLOOKUP(value,table,column,TRUE) //
approximate match
= VLOOKUP(value,table,column,FALSE) //
exact match

Unfortunately, the 4th argument, range_lookup, is

optional and defaults to TRUE, which means VLOOKUP
will do an approximate match by default. When doing an
approximate match, VLOOKUP assumes the table is
sorted and performs a binary search. During a binary
search, if VLOOKUP nds an exact match value, it
returns a value from that row. If however, VLOOKUP
encounters a value greater than the lookup value, it will
return a value from the previous row. 

This is a dangerous default because many people

unwittingly leave VLOOKUP in it's default mode, which
can cause an incorrect result when the table is not
sorted.

To avoid this problem, make sure to use FALSE or zero as

the 4th argument when you want an exact match.

7. You can force VLOOKUP to do an exact match

To force VLOOKUP to nd an exact match, make sure to

set the 4 argument (range_lookup) to FALSE or zero.
These two formulas are equivalent:

= VLOOKUP(value, data, column, FALSE)

= VLOOKUP(value, data, column, 0)

In exact match mode, when VLOOKUP can't nd a value,

it will return #N/A. This a clear indication that the value
isn't found in the table.

8. You can tell VLOOKUP to do an approximate

match

To use VLOOKUP in approximate match mode, either

omit the 4th argument (range_lookup) or supply it as
TRUE or 1. These 3 formulas are equivalent:

= VLOOKUP(value, data, column)

= VLOOKUP(value, data, column, 1)
= VLOOKUP(value, data, column, TRUE)

We recommend that you always set range_lookup

argument explicitly, even though VLOOKUP doesn't
require it. That way, you always have a visual reminder of
the match mode you expect.

Video: How to use VLOOKUP for approximate matches

9. For approximate matches, data must be

sorted

If you are using approximate-mode matching, your data

must be sorted in ascending order by lookup value.
Otherwise, you may get an incorrect results. Also be
aware that sometimes text data may look sorted, even
though it's not.

Felienne Hermans has a great example of this problem here,

from a cool analysis she did on actual Enron spreadsheets!

10. VLOOKUP can merge data in different tables

A common use case for VLOOKUP is to join data from

two or more tables. For example, perhaps you have order
data in one table, and customer data in another and you
want to bring some customer data into the order table for
analysis:
Because the customer id exists in both tables, you can
use this value to pull in the data you want with
VLOOKUP. Just con gure VLOOKUP to use the id value in
table one, and the data in table 2, with the required
column index. In the example below, we are using two
VLOOKUP formulas. One to pull in the customer name,
and the other to pull in the customer state.

Link: Example of merging with VLOOKUP.

Video: How to use VLOOKUP to merge tables.

11. VLOOKUP can classify or categorize data

If you ever need to apply arbitrary categories to data

records, you can easily do so with VLOOKUP, by using a
table that acts as the "key" to assign categories.

A classic example is grades, where you need to assign a

grade based on a score:

In this case, VLOOKUP is con gured for approximate

match, so it's important that the table be sorted in
ascending order.

But you can also use VLOOKUP to assign arbitrary

categories. In the example below, we are using VLOOKUP
to to calculate a group for each department using a small
table (named "key") that de nes the grouping.
12. Absolute references make VLOOKUP more
portable

In situations where you plan to retrieve information from

more than one column in a table, or if you need to copy
and paste VLOOKUP, you can save time and aggravation
by using absolute references for the lookup value and
table array. This lets you copy the formula, and then
change only the column index number to use the same
lookup to get a value from a different column.

For example, because the lookup value and table array

are absolute, we can copy the formula across the
columns, then come back and change the column index
as needed.

13. Named ranges make VLOOKUP easier to

read (and more portable)

Absolute ranges are pretty ugly looking, so can make

your VLOOKUP formulas a lot cleaner and easier to read
by replacing absolute references with named ranges,
which are automatically absolute.

For example, in the employee data example above, you

can name the input cell "id" and then name the data in
the table "data", you can write your formula as follows:

Not only is this formula easier to read, but it's also more
portable, since named ranges are automatically absolute.

14. Inserting a column may break existing

VLOOKUP formulas
If you have existing VLOOKUP formulas in a worksheet,
formulas may break if you insert a column in the table.
This is because hard-coded column index values don't
change automatically when columns are inserted or
deleted.

In this example, the lookups for Rank and Sales were

broken when a new column was inserted between Year
and Rank. Year continues to work because it is on the left
of the inserted column:

To avoid this problem, you can calculate a column index

as described in the next two tips.

15. You can use ROW or COLUMN to calculate a

column index

If you're the type who is bothered by any amount of

editing after copying a formula, you can use either ROW
or COLUMN to generate dynamic column indexes. If
you're getting data from consecutive columns, this trick
lets you set up one VLOOKUP formula, then copy it
across with no changes required.

For example, with the employee data below, we can use

the COLUMN function to generate a dynamic column
index. For the rst formula in cell C3, COLUMN by itself
will return 3 (because column C is third in the worksheet)
so we simply need to subtract one, and copy the formula
across: 

All formulas are identical with no post-editing required.

The formula we are using is this:

= VLOOKUP(id,data,COLUMN() - 1,0)

16. Use VLOOKUP + MATCH for a fully dynamic

column index

Taking the above tip one step further, you can use
MATCH to look up the position of a column in a table and
return a fully dynamic column index.

This is sometimes called a two-way lookup since you are

looking up both the row and the column.

An example would be looking up sales for a salesperson

in a particular month, or looking up the price for a
particular product from a particular supplier.

For example, suppose you have sales per month, broken

out by salesperson:

VLOOKUP can easily nd the sales person, but it has no

way to handle the month name automatically. The trick
is to to use the MATCH function in place of a static
column index.

Notice that we give match a range that includes all

columns in the table in order to "sync up" the the column
numbers used by VLOOKUP.

= VLOOKUP(H2,data,MATCH(H3,months,0),0)

Note: you'll often see two way lookups done with INDEX
and MATCH, an approach that offers more exibility and
better performance on big data sets. See how in this
quick video: How to do a two-way lookup with INDEX
and MATCH.

17. VLOOKUP allows wildcards for partial

matching

Any time you're using VLOOKUP in exact match mode,

you have the option of using wildcards in the lookup
value. It may seem counterintuitive, but wildcards let you
do an exact match based on a partial match :)

Excel provides two wildcard characters: an asterisk (*)

matches one or more characters, and a question mark (?)
matches one character.
For example, you can type an asterisk directly into a cell
and refer to it as a lookup value with VLOOKUP. In the
screen below, we have entered "Mon*" into H3, which is a
named range called "val". This causes VLOOKUP to
match the name "Monet".

The formula in this case is simple:

= VLOOKUP(val,data,1,0)

If you like, you can adjust the VLOOKUP formula to use a

built-in wildcard, like the example below, where we
simply concatenate the value in H3 with an asterisk.

In this case, we are concatenating the asterisk to the

lookup value inside the VLOOKUP function:

= VLOOKUP(val & "*",data,1,0)

Note: Be careful with wildcards and VLOOKUP. They give

you an easy way to create a "lazy match", but they also make
it easy to nd the wrong match.

18. You can trap #N/A errors and display a

friendly message

In exact match mode, VLOOKUP will display the #N/A

error when no match is found. In one way, this is useful
because it tell you de nitively that there is no match in
the lookup table. However, #N/A errors aren't very fun to
look at, so there are several ways you can trap this error
and display something else instead.

Once you start using VLOOKUP, you're bound to run into

the #N/A error, which occurs when VLOOKUP isn't able
to nd a match.

This is a useful error, because VLOOKUP is telling you

clearly that it can't nd the lookup value. In this
example, "Latte" doesn't exist as a beverage in the table,
so VLOOKUP throws an #N/A error
The formula in this case is a completely standard exact
match:

= VLOOKUP(E6,data,2,0)

However, #N/A errors aren't very fun to look at, so you

might want to catch this error and display a more
friendly message.

The easiest way to trap errors with VLOOKUP is to wrap

VLOOKUP in the IFERROR function. IFERROR allows you
to "catch" any error and return a result of your choosing. 

To trap this error and display a "not found" message

instead of the error, you can simply wrap the orignal
formula inside of IFERROR and set the result you want:

If the lookup value is found, no error occurs and

VLOOKUP function returns a normal result. Here is the
formula:

= IFERROR(VLOOKUP(E6,data,2,0),"Not
found")

19. Numbers as text can cause a match error

Sometimes, the table you are working with in VLOOKUP

might contain numbers entered as text. If you are simply
retrieving numbers as text from a column in a table, it
doesn't matter. But if the rst column of the table
contains numbers entered as text, you will get an #N/A
error if the lookup value is not also text.

In the following example, the ids for the planet table are
numbers entered as text, which causes VLOOKUP to
return an error since the lookup value is the number 3:
To solve this problem, you need to make sure the lookup
value and the rst column of the table are both the same
data type (either both numbers or both text).

One way to do this is to convert the values in the lookup

column to numbers. An easy way to do this is to add zero
using paste special.

If you don't have easy control over the source table, you
can also adjust the VLOOKUP formula to convert the
lookup value to text by concatenating "" to the value like
so:

= VLOOKUP(id & "",planets,2,0)

If you can't be certain when you'll have numbers and

when you'll have text, you can cater to both options by
wrapping VLOOKUP in IFERROR and writing a formula to
handle both cases:

= IFERROR(VLOOKUP(id,planets,3,0),VLOOKUP(
id & "",planets,3,0))

20. You can use VLOOKUP to replace nested IF

statements

One of the more interesting uses of VLOOKUP is to

replace nested IF statements. If you've ever built a series
of nested IFs, you know that they work ne, but they
require a bit of parentheses wrangling. You also have to
be careful about the order you work in, so as not to
introduce a logical error.

For example, a common use of nested IFs is to assign

grades based on a score of some kind. In the example
below, you can see a formula has been build with nested
IFs to do just that, using the grade key at the right as the
guide.
The full nested IF formula looks like this:

= IF(C5 < 64,"F",IF(C5 < 73,"D",IF(C5 < 85,"C

",IF(C5 < 95,"B","A"))))

This works ne, but note that both the logic and the
actual scores are baked right into the formula. If the
scoring changes for any reason, you'll need to carefully
update one formula then copy it down the entire table.

By contrast VLOOKUP can assign the same grades with a

simple formula. All you need to do is make sure the grade
key table is set up for VLOOKUP (i.e. it most be sorted by
score, and contain brackets to handle all scores).

After de ning a named range "key" for the grade key

table, the VLOOKUP formula is very simple and
generated the same grades as the original nested IFs
formula:

With the grade key table named "key" we have a very

simple VLOOKUP formula:

= VLOOKUP(C5,key,2,TRUE)

A nice bonus of this approach is that both the logic and

the scores are built right into the grade key table. If
anything changes, you can simply update the table
directly and the VLOOKUP formulas will update
automatically - no editing required.

Video: How to replace nested IFs with VLOOKUP

21. VLOOKUP can only handle a single criteria

By design, VLOOKUP can only nd values based on a

single criteria, which is supplied as a lookup value to nd
in the rst column of the table (the lookup column).

This means you can't easily do things like look up an

employee with the last name of "Smith" in  "Accounting",
or look up an employee based on rst and last names in
separate columns.
However, there are ways overcome this limitation. One
workaround is to create a helper column that
concatenates values from different columns to create
lookup values that behave like multiple conditions. For
example, here we want nd the department and group for
an employee, but the rst name and last name appear in
separate columns. How can we lookup both at once?

First, add a helper column that simply concatenates rst

and last names together:

Then con gure VLOOKUP to use a table that includes

this new column, and join rst and last names for the
lookup value:

The nal VLOOKUP formula looks up rst and last names

together using the helper column as the key:

= VLOOKUP(C3 & D3,data,4,0)

22. Two VLOOKUPS are faster than one

VLOOKUP

It may seem completely crazy, but when you have a big

set of data and need to do an exact match, you can speed
up VLOOKUP a lot by adding another VLOOKUP to the
formula!

The background: imagine that you have a lot of order

data, say, more than 10,000 records and you are using
VLOOKUP to lookup the order total based on the order
id. So, you are using something like this:

= VLOOKUP(order_id,order_data, 5, FALSE)
The FALSE at the end forces VLOOKUP to do an exact
match. You want an exact match because there's a chance
that an order number won't be found. In this case, the
exact match setting will cause VLOOKUP to return #N/A
error.

The problem is that exact matches are really slow,

because Excel must proceed in a linear fashion through
all values until it nds a match or not.

Conversely, approximate matches are lightning fast

because Excel is able to do what's called a binary search.

The problem with binary searches however (i.e.

VLOOKUP in approximate match mode) is that
VLOOKUP can return the wrong result when a value isn't
found. Worse, the result might look completely normal,
so it can be very dif cult to spot.

The solution is to use VLOOKUP twice, both times in

approximate match mode. The rst instance simply
checks that the value really exists. If so, another
VLOOKUP is run (again, in approximate match mode) to
fetch the data you want. If not, you can return any value
you want to indicate that a result was not found.

The nal formula looks like this:

= IF(VLOOKUP(order_id,order_data,1,TRUE) =
order_id,
VLOOKUP(order_id,order_data,5,TRUE),
"Missing")

I learned this approach from Charles Williams of

FastExcel, who has a fantastic, detailed article here: Why
2 VLOOKUPS are better than 1 VLOOKUP.

Note: Your data must be sorted to use this trick. It's simply a

way to protect against a missing lookup value, while
maintaining a fast lookup.

23. INDEX and MATCH together can do

everything VLOOKUP can do and more

If you follow Excel online, you'll probably run into

the VLOOKUP vs. INDEX/MATCH debate. The argument
can get surprisingly heated :)

The gist is this: INDEX + MATCH can do everything that

VLOOKUP (and HLOOKUP) can do, with a lot more more
exibility, at the cost of a bit more complexity. So, those
in favor of INDEX + MATCH will argue (very sanely) that
you might as well start off learning INDEX and MATCH,
since it gives you a better toolset in the end.

The argument against INDEX + MATCH is that it requires

two functions instead of one, so it is inherently more
complex for users (especially new users) to learn and
master.

My two cents is that if you use Excel frequently, you're

going to want to learn how to use INDEX and MATCH. It's
a very powerful combination.

But I also think you should learn VLOOKUP, which you'll

run into everywhere, often in worksheets you inherit
from others. In straightforward situations, VLOOKUP will
get the job done just ne with no fuss.

To learn more about INDEX and MATCH, see this article.

More?

Did I miss anything? Have questions? Feel free to leave a

comment below.

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