What exactly is VLOOKUP?
Basically, VLOOKUP lets you search for specific information in your spreadsheet. For example, if you have
a list of products with prices, you could search for the price of a specific item.
We're going to use VLOOKUP to find the price of the Photo frame. You can probably already see that the
price is $9.99, but that's because this is a simple example. Once you learn how to use VLOOKUP, you'll be
able to use it with larger, more complex spreadsheets, and that's when it will become truly useful.
We'll add our formula to cell F2, but you can add it to any blank cell. As with any formula, you'll start with
an equals sign (=). Then type the formula name. Our arguments will need to be in parentheses, so type an
open parenthesis. So far, it should look like this:
=VLOOKUP(
Adding the arguments
Now, we'll add our arguments. The arguments will tell VLOOKUP what to search for and where to search.
The first argument is the name of the item you're searching for, which in this case is Photo frame. Because
the argument is text, we'll need to put it in double quotes:
=VLOOKUP("Photo frame"
The second argument is the cell range that contains the data. In this example, our data is in A2:B16. As
with any function, you'll need to use a comma to separate each argument:
=VLOOKUP("Photo frame", A2:B16
It's important to know that VLOOKUP will always search the first column in this range. In this example, it
will search column A for "Photo frame". The value that it returns (in this case, the price) will always need to
be to the right of that column.
The third argument is the column index number. It's simpler than it sounds: The first column in the range
is 1, the second column is 2, etc. In this case, we are trying to find the price of the item, and the prices are
contained in the second column. This means our third argument will be 2:
=VLOOKUP("Photo frame", A2:B16, 2
The fourth argument tells VLOOKUP whether to look for approximate matches, and it can be either TRUE
or FALSE. If it is TRUE, it will look for approximate matches. Generally, this is only useful if the first column
has numerical values that have been sorted. Because we're only looking for exact matches, the fourth
argument should be FALSE. This is our last argument, so go ahead and close the parentheses:
=VLOOKUP("Photo frame", A2:B16, 2, FALSE)
That's it! When you press Enter, it should give you the answer, which is 9.99.
How it works
Let's take a look at how this formula works. It first searches vertically down the first column (VLOOKUP is
short for vertical lookup). When it finds "Photo frame", it moves to the second column to find the price.
As we mentioned earlier, the price needs to be to the right of the item name. VLOOKUP cannot look to the
left of the column that it's searching.
If we want to find the price of a different item, we can just change the first argument:
=VLOOKUP("T-shirt", A2:B16, 2, FALSE)
or:
=VLOOKUP("Gift basket", A2:B16, 2, FALSE)
It would be very tedious to edit your VLOOKUP formula whenever you want to find the price of a different
item. In the next example, we'll show how to avoid this by using a cell reference.
Another example
Are you ready for a slightly more advanced example? We're going to make a couple of changes to the
spreadsheet to make it more realistic.
In the previous example, we typed the item name directly into the VLOOKUP formula. But in the real
world, you'll usually use a cell reference instead. In this example, we'll type the item name in cell E2, and
our VLOOKUP formula can then use a cell reference to find information about that product. Then, we can
simply type a new item name into E2 to find any product we want.
We've also added a third column that has the category for each item. This will give us the option of finding
the price or category. Here's what the spreadsheet looks like so far:
Our formula will be similar to the previous example, but we'll need to change the first three arguments.
Let's start by changing the first argument to a cell reference (make sure to remove the quotation marks):
=VLOOKUP(E2, A2:B16, 2, FALSE)
To find the category, we'll need to change the second and third arguments. First, we'll change the range
to A2:C16 so it includes the third column. Next, we'll change the column index number to 3 because our
categories are in the third column:
=VLOOKUP(E2, A2:C16, 3, FALSE)
When you press Enter, you'll see that the Gift basket is in the Gifts category.
If we want to find the category of a different item, we can simply change the item name in cell E2:
Try this!
If you'd like more practice, see if you can find the following:
The price of the coffee mug
The category of the landscape painting
The price of the serving bowl
The category of the scarf
Now that you know the basics of VLOOKUP, you can use it in many different situations. For example, if you
have a contact list you could search for someone's name to find his or her phone number. If your contact
list has columns for the email address or company name, you could search for those by simply changing
the second and third arguments, as we did in our example.
To get even more practice with VLOOKUP, you can check out the Invoice series in our Excel
Formulas tutorial. It covers tips for avoiding common problems and using data validation to use VLOOKUP
with a drop-down list!
