If you are struggling to find exact match to the against values, and not having patience to find things manually in excel. Then you have find right thing to read. This function has magic in itself while working on excel, somebody who really wants to play with datasets on excel then you must try this function. Even I have learned my first function on excel is the Vlookup function.
What is Vlookup?
Basically, Vlookup is an inbuilt- function of excel. It uses in a vertical form against the lookup value from the left-most. It only works left side of the data to find the result of the lookup value which has been specified.
Learn how to use Vlookup, and understand syntax with the below example:-
Let’s assume, We have the customer’s name, & gender but we need the phone number of the customer
The below data have customers phone number we need to find value using Vlookup.
Before using Vlookup, we have to understand the syntax of Vlookup.
Syntax of Vlookup:-
VLOOKUP(lookup_value,table_array,col_index_num,[range_lookup])
- Lookup value – It is a value that has to be chosen unique in nature, which is not duplicated against returning a value. It can be a value, a reference, or a text string. Let’s understand by seeing the below image.
Note :- If you select look up value which is repeated/duplicate in the column, Vlookup gives the first value returns.
Here user have to chose the customer name “G4” as the lookup value because for gender the “B” column has repeated values.
- Table array – The table array should contain the output of the lookup value within the selected range. A table array can be a reference to a range or a range name.
Here user have to select the range from “A1:C11” as a Table array in which the return value appears.
- Column index number – The number of columns where the output value is appearing. (For example, We have data with 4 columns A, B, C, & D. Here Vlookup is looking for column index numbers, not for the alphabet. So, we considered column A=1, B=2, C=3, & D=4 for the same.
We are searching for the customer’s phone number which is in “column 3” which means the column index number is 3.
- Range lookup – It’s optional to use, but this is actually used to find the nearest or exact values. If data contains more than two digit numbers.
The final output of the function:-
Conclusion:- This function helps you in many situations to find the match in a large set on Excel, also you can apply the same function to multiple conditions.
Please practice and experiment with this function to enhance your data analysis skills.