How to use the VLOOKUP Function for Beginers Part 1

Hi friends,
In my daily routine works in Microsoft Excel I can't think Excel without VLOOKUP function and if you don't know how to use VLOOKUP in Excel then I think you will have to face lot of problems while preparing data. I can remember one of my colleagues who occasionally gave a statement that almost all the Excel generated reports are dependent upon VLOOKUP, and sometimes few Companies also dependent upon VLOOKUP!!!
That not true, he was kidding... There are various ways to match column wise data in Excel, for example you can use INDEX and two MATCH function in nested condition in place of VLOOKUP. You can check this in this link .

VLOOKUP in Microsoft Excel is an indispensable function and today in this article we'll discuss about the very basic VLOOKUP function, step-by-step. Vlookup looks for a value Column wise, therefore you can get column wise matching data using this function.

Free Download Demo Excel File : Microsoft Excel Vlookup Function File

Description

The VLOOKUP function performs a vertical lookup by searching for a value in the first column of a table and returning the value in the same row in the index_number position.

The VLOOKUP function is a built-in function in Excel that is categorized as a Lookup/Reference Function. It can be used as a worksheet function (WS) in Excel. As a worksheet function, the VLOOKUP function can be entered as part of a formula in a cell of a worksheet.

The VLOOKUP function is actually quite easy to use once you understand how it works! If you want to follow along with this tutorial, download the example spreadsheet. 

Watch the Youtube video here How to use VLOOKUP

 In simple language, this function is used to find out the data from large database providing 4 parameters.

What need to do ? As shown in the below picture cell number 'W2' write "=vlookup(lookup value, table array, column index number, [range lookup]) for exact match always put '0' (zero to [range lookup]". 

Follow the below syntax. Practice few times download my working files, watch my video, and you will feel it this function as very easy and very useful function.

Basic VLOOKUP function

Syntax

The syntax for the VLOOKUP function in Microsoft Excel is
VLOOKUP( value, table, index_number, [range lookup] )

Parts of VLOOKUP Function in Excel

Parameters or Arguments

value
The value to search for in the first column of the table.

table
Two or more columns of data that is sorted in ascending order.

index_number
The column number in table from which the matching value must be returned. The first column is 1.

approximate_match
Optional. Enter FALSE to find an exact match. Enter TRUE to find an approximate match. If this parameter is omitted, TRUE is the default.

This process to use VLOOKUP is the very basic and very easy method but you need to know the advanced VLOOKUP also, click here to move to the Part 2 of VLOOUP function.