How to use Vlookup in Excel – A Very simplest tutorial

VLOOKUP is most demanding excel function, We Use VLOOKUP when we need to find things in a table or a range by row.

The VLOOKUP function takes three arguments plus an optional fourth argument:

1. The value to be compared

2. A lookup table, with the values to be compared always in the left column

3. The column number of the lookup table where you find the “answer”

4. TRUE or FALSE (which is TRUE by default if omitted)

The optional fourth argument requires some explanation. The default value, TRUE, indicates that you are looking for an approximate match; you don’t necessarily expect to find your exact lookup value in the lookup table. In this case, the first column of the lookup table must be in ascending order. However, if the fourth argument is FALSE, this indicates that you are looking for an exact match in the first column of the lookup table. In this case, it doesn’t matter whether the first column is in ascending order or not. However, the function will return an error if no exact match can be found.

Because the VLOOKUP function is often copied down a column, it is usually necessary to make the second argument an absolute reference. The easiest way to do this is to give the lookup table a range name such as Lookup Table, because range names are always treated as absolute references. However, a range name is not absolutely necessary.

VLOOKUP have some limitations like you cannot get value from the left side of the table array

You cannot get 2nd or 3rd matching row’s value, for example if there are 3 sets of each continent in a column and you need to get 3rd row data you cannot get with VLOOKUP.

I will teach you how you can get 1st to nth row data, I will teach you how to get data from the left side of lookup array.

My name is Abid Maqsood, I have more than 20 years of working experience in different organizations as a Business intelligence expert, I have more than 5 Years of training experience, I am Microsoft certified trainer and I have trained more than 1500 professionals through webinar and online sessions.

In this training you will learn most important excel function which will help you to search your required data using single or group of functions.