what is vlookup?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
It is described in Help

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HTH

Bob

(there's no email, no snail mail, but somewhere should be gmail in my addy)
 
Vertical Lookup

Think of it this way, you have a large list with thousands of rows and a lot
of coulmns. This is list 2. Say the first column has serial numbers in it
and the fifth column has prices in it.

Now you have another list that has these same serial numbers but no prices.
This is list 1.

How do you get the prices for each corresponding serial number from list 2
onto list 1? Use Vlookup.

=Vlookup((list1 serial#), list2, 5, false)
translates to:
return a price from list 2, column 5 that matches my list 1 serial# value.

(I am only using serial number as an example...you can use anything, prices,
cusip, addresses, yearly salaries, etc. But note that vlookup is a "dumb"
function and will only return the first occurence of the found value. Also
note that the list it is looking up has to be in ascending order. Other
caveats found in "Help")





As already mentioned, the Help feature explains it okay.
 
Hi,

VLOOKUP searches for a value in the first column of a table array and
returns a value in the same row from another column in the table array.

The V in VLOOKUP stands for vertical. Use VLOOKUP instead of HLOOKUP when
your comparison values are located in a column to the left of the data that
you want to find.

Syntax

VLOOKUP(lookup_value,table_array,col_index_num,range_lookup)

Lookup_value The value to search in the first column of the table array
(array: Used to build single formulas that produce multiple results or that
operate on a group of arguments that are arranged in rows and columns. An
array range shares a common formula; an array constant is a group of
constants used as an argument.). Lookup_value can be a value or a reference.

Important: If lookup_value is smaller than the smallest value in the first
column of table_array, VLOOKUP returns the #N/A error value.

Table_array Two or more columns of data. Use a reference to a range or a
range name. The values in the first column of table_array are the values
searched by lookup_value. These values can be text, numbers, or logical
values.

Note: Uppercase and lowercase text are equivalent.

Col_index_num The column number in table_array from which the matching
value must be returned. A col_index_num of 1 returns the value in the first
column in table_array; a col_index_num of 2 returns the value in the second
column in table_array, and so on. If col_index_num is:

Less than 1, VLOOKUP returns the #VALUE! error value.
Greater than the number of columns in table_array, VLOOKUP returns the #REF!
error value.

Range_lookup A logical value that specifies whether you want VLOOKUP to
find an exact match or an approximate match:

If TRUE or omitted, an exact or approximate match is returned. If an exact
match is not found, the next largest value that is less than lookup_value is
returned.

The values in the first column of table_array must be placed in ascending
sort order; otherwise, VLOOKUP may not give the correct value. You can put
the values in ascending order by choosing the Sort command from the Data menu
and selecting Ascending. For more information, see Default sort orders.

If FALSE, VLOOKUP will only find an exact match. In this case, the values in
the first column of table_array do not need to be sorted. If there are two or
more values in the first column of table_array that match the lookup_value,
the first value found is used. If an exact match is not found, the error
value #N/A is returned.


Remarks

When searching text values in the first column of table_array, ensure that
the data in the first column of table_array does not have leading spaces,
trailing spaces, inconsistent use of straight ( ' or " ) and curly ( ‘ or “)
quotation marks, or nonprinting characters. In these cases, VLOOKUP may give
an incorrect or unexpected value. For more information on functions that you
can use to clean text data, see Text and Data functions.

When searching number or date values, ensure that the data in the first
column of table_array is not stored as text values. In this case, VLOOKUP may
give an incorrect or unexpected value. For more information, see Convert
numbers stored as text to numbers.

If range_lookup is FALSE and lookup_value is text, then you can use the
wildcard characters, question mark (?) and asterisk (*), in lookup_value. A
question mark matches any single character; an asterisk matches any sequence
of characters. If you want to find an actual question mark or asterisk, type
a tilde (~) preceding the character.

Challa Prabhu
 
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