Explanation
This formula uses the value in cell F7 for a lookup value, the range B6:C10 for the lookup table, the number 2 to indicate "2nd column", and zero as the last argument to force an exact match.
Although in this case we are mapping text values to numeric outputs, the same formula can handle text to text, or numbers to text.
Related formulas
VLOOKUP calculate grades
In this example, the goal is to calculate the correct grade for each name in column B using the score in column C and the table in F5:G9 as a "key" to assign grades. For convenience only, the range F5:G9 has been named key . This is a classic "approximate-match" lookup problem because it is not...
Get employee information with VLOOKUP
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In this example, the goal is to perform a two-way lookup based on the name in cell H4 and the month in cell H5 with the VLOOKUP function. Inside the VLOOKUP function, the column index argument is normally hard-coded as a static number. However, you can create a dynamic column index number by using...
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This is a standard "exact match" VLOOKUP formula with one exception: the column index is calculated using the COLUMN function. When the COLUMN function is used without any arguments, it returns a number that corresponds to the current column. In this case, the first instance of the formula in...
VLOOKUP without #N/A error
When VLOOKUP can't find a value in a lookup table, it returns the #N/A error. In this example, the goal is to remove the #N/A error that VLOOKUP returns when it can't find a lookup value. In general, the best way to do this is to use the IFNA function. However, the IFERROR function can also be used...
Sum text values like numbers
The heart of this formula is a basic INDEX and MATCH formula, used to translate text values into numbers as defined in a lookup table. For example, to translate "EX" to the corresponding number, we would use: =INDEX(value,MATCH("EX",code,0)) which would return 4. The twist in this problem however...
Map inputs to arbitrary values
This formula uses the value in cell F6 for a lookup value, the range B5:C10 for the lookup table, 2 to indicate "2nd column", and zero as the last argument to force an exact match. Although in this case we are mapping numeric inputs to numeric outputs, the same formula will handle text values for...
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VLOOKUP Function
The Excel VLOOKUP function is used to retrieve information from a table using a lookup value. The lookup values must appear in the first column of the table, and the information to retrieve is specified by column number. VLOOKUP supports approximate and exact matching...
Related videos
How to use VLOOKUP
VLOOKUP is one of the most important lookup functions in Excel. The V stands for "vertical" which means you can use VLOOKUP to look up values in a table that's arranged vertically. Let's take a look. Here we have a list of employees in a table. Let's use VLOOKUP to build a simple form that...
Why VLOOKUP is better than nested IFs
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In a lot of cases, you'll use VLOOKUP to find exact matches based on some kind of unique id, but there are many situations where you'll want to use VLOOKUP to find non-exact matches. A classic case is using VLOOKUP to find a commission rate based on a sales number. Let's take a look. Here we have...
