Summary
In this post, you will learn how to use VLOOKUP in Excel with different examples.
Purpose
Lookup the value in a table by matching with given criteria.
Syntax
= VLOOKUP (lookup_value, table_array, col_index_num, [range_lookup])
Arguments
Lookup_value – The value to look for in the column of a table.
Table_array – The table from which to retrieve a value.
col_index_num – The column in the table from which you want the value in result column
Range_lookup – [optional] TRUE = approximate match (default). FALSE = exact match
Example 1:
In the below example (image 1), we have explained how to use VLOOKUP for exact match. In this example, our criteria is to find out the location based on the serial no.
Formula used in H6 is =VLOOKUP(G6, B6:E13, 2, FALSE).
Example 2:
In this example, we need to use VLOOKUP in approximate match mode, because in most cases an exact match will never be found. The VLOOKUP formula in D5 is configured to perform an approximate match by setting the last argument to TRUE:
Note: We have used the $G$6:$H$11 to freeze the cells
