A brief presentation about the Vlookup function in spreadsheets - how to use it, things to take care of, its limitations, workarounds, and handling errors.

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Understanding
VLOOKUP
Usage, Limitations, Workarounds
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2. Quickly in 20 seconds, find the Price for “OSCAR”An Exercise

3. What is VLOOKUP?
 Vertical Lookup
 Look for something you know, Vertically down a column of data
 Extracts more information related to the thing you know
 Like You or Me
 I know a Stock Symbol,
 I want to know the Stock Price
 I look up this information in the stock pages (By Looking Vertically)
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Chances are, your eye did a “VLOOKUP”

4. What is VLOOKUP?
 Vertical Lookup
 Look for something you know, Vertically down a column of data
 Extracts more information related to the thing you know
 Like You or Me
 I know a Stock Symbol,
 I want to know the Stock Price
 I look up this information in the stock pages (By Looking Vertically)
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5. VLOOKUP Syntax (how you type it)
 =VLOOKUP(lookup_value,table_array,Column_index_num,Range_lookup)
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What you know Where to look.
Which block of
data should I
look in? (there
could be many
data sets in one
spreadsheet)
The thing you
KNOW should be
in the first column
“Lookup column”
Column number
that contains the
information we
want
It’s an “Index” number .
Means in relation to the
lookup column what is
its position, considering
lookup column as
number one.
Do you want a Range of
results (approximations)?
FALSE (No – I want an
exact match)
TRUE (Yes – an
approximate match will do)
TRUE is the default if you leave
out this part
Data has to be sorted in
Ascending order with the first
column as the sort key ONLY if
using TRUE

6. METHOD 1 - VLOOKUP with EXACT MATCH
 =VLOOKUP(lookup_value,table_array,Column_index_num,Range_lookup)
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7. METHOD 2 - VLOOKUP with APPROXIMATE MATCH
 MUST – Sort the
Dataset in Ascending
order using Lookup
column as the Sort Key
 MUST – Use TRUE as
the last argument or
omit it
 Where would it be
used?
 Tier-based lookups
 Tax tables, Grading
tables, Commissions,
etc.
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8. Not Available – The #NA error
 Only when you use the EXACT Match method
 What you are looking for is not found
 Item not available in the data
 Item available but misspelled in data or lookup_value
 Item available as Text but lookup_value is Numeric (or vice versa)
 Many solutions available
 AFTER THE FACT (Handle the errors after they occur)
o IFERROR function – IF ANY error results, return an alternate value
o ISNA function used with IF function
o IFNA function (version 2013+)
 BEFORE THE FACT (Ensure no errors by checking before Vlookup)
o Check if item exists before doing VLOOKUP (Many formulas to do this)
o Ensure user only looks for VALID items through drop-down lists
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9. Handling the #NA error – After the fact
 Using IFERROR (Careful – this one traps ALL errors)
 =IFERROR(value,value_if_error)
 =IFERROR(VLOOKUP(E18,C6:L15,7,FALSE),”Sorry there is an error”)
 Using IFNA (if you have 2013+)
 =IFNA(value,value_if_na)
 =IFNA(VLOOKUP(E18,C6:L15,7,FALSE),”Sorry Not Found”)
 Using ISNA and IF
 =ISNA(Value)
 =IF(Logical_test,Value_if_true,Value_if_false)
 Something like this (massive formula)
o =IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(E18,C6:L15,7,FALSE)),”Sorry Not Found”, VLOOKUP(E18,C6:L15,7,FALSE))
o Or in other words: IF the result of my Vlookup formula is NA, return “Sorry Not Found” (without quotes), else use my
Vlookup formula
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10. Limitations of Vlookup -1
 Lookup Column has to be the
first column
 Anything left of lookup column
is unusable
 Solution/Workaround*
 Set up data appropriately
 Or Move the lookup column to
far-left
 Or select table_array to ensure
lookup column is leftmost and
ignore all else
 Or use other functions like
INDEX with MATCH
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Lookup column
* Other solutions exist as well

11. Limitations of Vlookup -2
 Not forgiving of column
insertion/deletion
 Column_index_number is a
constant
 Will fail if you insert/delete a
column because the
column_index_number has
changed
 Solution/Workaround*
 Calculate the
Column_index_number
instead of hard coding it.
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If I delete this column, Closing Price is no
longer the seventh column in my dataset
and the formula below will now get me the
price from the “Volume” column
* Other solutions exist as well

12. Limitations of Vlookup -more
 Duplicates in the lookup column are ignored
 Only data from the first matching record is returned
 Even if other columns in the record are not same
 One variable lookup only – Lookup value
 Only nearest LOWER approximate lookup can be returned
 Solution/Workaround*
 Use other formulas – INDEX and MATCH in array formula, DGET with a
complex query for duplicates
 Combine VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP or VLOOKUP and MATCH for two
variable lookups, or INDEX and MATCH
 The MATCH function can return LOWER or HIGHER approximate lookups
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* Other solutions exist as well

13. Creative uses of Vlookup
 Interactive Business Models
 Lookup an inputted variable and populate a business
model with the data looked up
 Sensitivity and What-if analysis
 Lookup a scenario variable in a table of scenarios and
populate a business model with the results
 Variance and Gap analysis
 Lookup Key Result Area actuals and planned values for the
evaluated item and compare
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