How do I write a basic VLOOKUP statement?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

I know most of the posts here are for advanced users... but, please help!
I have a column of data in one spreadsheet (column A) in a workbook and
another column of data (also column A) in another spreadsheet in the same
workbook. I want to confirm that all of the data in the first spreadsheet is
in the second, and identity those that are not.

I know this is a very very basic VLOOKUP statement, but I am lost.

thanks for anyones help,
 
Give this a try. In column B of Sheet 1 enter:

=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(A1,'Sheet 2'!$A$1:$A$100,1,FALSE)),"Missing","OK")

Copy down Column B for each value in column A. I just assumed your data was
in cells A1 thru A100. Change this range to meet your needs. Also, change
Sheet 2 to match the actual name of your second sheet.

HTH,
Elkar
 
thank you very much, I've felt like an idiot for the last couple of days
trying to "self educate myself and get it to work. You have ended my
frustration!
 
for future reference, remember that ISNA only works for the one type of
error. you can use ISERROR in the same fashion for all errors not just
missing data. if you only need to find the missing data, and don't need to
validate correct data you can use
=IFERROR(VLOOKUP(A1,'Sheet 2'!$A$1:$A$100,1,FALSE)),"Missing")
and this will work just for finding errors in your range without having to
validate any other data.
 
That's why one wants to use it, if you don't want to get NA errors because
the value cannot be found it's perfect to use that particular function to
trap it but using ISERROR or IFERROR (in Excel 2007) will trap all errors
even those that can be of interest to know


--


Regards,


Peo Sjoblom
 
Back
Top