VlookUp

Instructions to utilize Excel's VLOOKUP Function

A large group of our learners have let us know they need to figure out how to utilize Excel's VLOOKUP Function. VLOOKUP is an amazingly helpful instrument, and figuring out how to utilize it is simpler than you might suspect!

Before you begin, you ought to comprehend the nuts and bolts of functions. Look at our Functions lesson from our Excel Formulas instructional exercise (or select a particular adaptation of Excel). VLOOKUP works the same in all variants of Excel, and it even works in other spreadsheet applications like Google Sheets. You can download the illustration in the event that you'd like to work alongside this article.

What precisely is VLOOKUP?

Fundamentally, VLOOKUP lets you scan for particular data in your spreadsheet. For instance, on the off chance that you have a rundown of items with costs, you could look at the cost of a particular thing.

We're going to use VLOOKUP to find the price of the Photo frame. You can probably already see that the price is $9.99, but that's because this is a simple example. Once you learn how to use VLOOKUP, you'll be able to use it with larger, more complex spreadsheets, and that's when it will become truly useful.

So We will add our formula to cell (E2 ), but you can add it to any blank cell. As with any formula, you'll start with an equals sign (=). Then type the formula name. Our arguments will need to be in parentheses, so type an open parenthesis. So far, it should look like this:

=VLOOKUP(

Adding the arguments

Now, we'll add our arguments. The arguments will tell VLOOKUP what to search for and where to search.

The first argument is the name of the item you're searching for, which in this case is Photo frame. Because the argument is text, we'll need to put it in double quotes:

=VLOOKUP("Photo frame"

The second argument is the cell range that contains the data. In this example, our data is in A2:B16. As with any function, you'll need to use a comma to separate each argument:

=VLOOKUP("Photo frame", A2:B16

Note: It's important to know that VLOOKUP will always search the first column in this range. In this example, it will search column A for "Photo frame". In some cases, you may need to move the columns around so the first column contains the correct data.

The third argument is the column index number. It's simpler than it sounds: The first column in the range is 1, the second column is 2, etc. In this case, we are trying to find the price of the item, and the prices are contained in the second column. This means our third argument will be 2:

=VLOOKUP("Photo frame", A2:B16, 2

The fourth argument tells VLOOKUP whether to look for approximate matches, and it can be either TRUE or FALSE. If it is TRUE, it will look for approximate matches. Generally, this is only useful if the first column has numerical values that have been sorted. Because we're only looking for exact matches, the fourth argument should be FALSE. This is our last argument, so go ahead and close the parentheses:

=VLOOKUP("Photo frame", A2:B16, 2, FALSE)

That's it! When you press Enter, it should give you the answer, which is 9.99.

How it works

Let's take a look at how this formula works. It first searches vertically down the first column (VLOOKUP is short for vertical lookup). When it finds "Photo frame", it moves to the second column to find the price.

 
If we want to find the price of a different item, we can just change the first argument:

=VLOOKUP("T-shirt", A2:B16, 2, FALSE)

or:

=VLOOKUP("Gift basket", A2:B16, 2, FALSE)