Lesson 16: Excel VLOOKUP Function

Lesson 16: Excel VLOOKUP Function

Summary 

VLOOKUP is an Excel function to lookup and retrieve data from a specific column in table. VLOOKUP supports approximate and exact matching, and wildcards (* ?) for partial matches. The "V" stands for "vertical". Lookup values must appear in the first column of the table, with lookup columns to the right.

Purpose 

Lookup a value in a table by matching on the first column

Return value 

The matched value from a table.

Syntax 

=VLOOKUP (value, table, col_index, [range_lookup])

Arguments 

value - The value to look for in the first column of a table.
table - The table from which to retrieve a value.
col_index - The column in the table from which to retrieve a value.
range_lookup - [optional] TRUE = approximate match (default). FALSE = exact match.