Microsoft Excel VLOOKUP() Function

To use Microsoft Excel's VLOOKUP() function, which searches for a value in the leftmost column of a table and returns a value in the same row from a specified column, follow these steps:

Open Excel: Launch Excel and open the worksheet containing the data you want to work with.

Select a cell: Click on the cell where you want the result of the VLOOKUP() function to appear.

Type the function: In the selected cell, type =VLOOKUP( to start the function.

Enter the lookup value: After typing =VLOOKUP(, enter the value you want to search for. This is the value you want to find in the leftmost column of your table.

Specify the table array: After entering the lookup value, specify the range of cells that contains the table you want to search. This should include the column where you want to find the lookup value and the column where you want to return the result.

Enter the column index number: After specifying the table array, enter the index number of the column from which you want to return the result. This is the column number relative to the leftmost column in your table array. For example, if you want to return a value from the third column of your table array, you would enter 3.

Specify the range lookup (optional): If you want an exact match, enter FALSE or 0. If you want an approximate match, enter TRUE or 1. If you omit this argument, Excel will default to TRUE for an approximate match.

Close the function: Close the parentheses ) to complete the function.

Press Enter: After closing the parentheses, press Enter to execute the function. The result will appear in the selected cell, showing the value found in the specified column of the table array corresponding to the lookup value.

Here's an example:

Suppose you have a table of employee data in cells A1 to C5, where column A contains employee IDs, column B contains employee names, and column C contains their salaries. You want to find the salary of the employee with ID "12345".

=VLOOKUP("12345", A1:C5, 3, FALSE)

This formula will search for the value "12345" in the leftmost column (column A) of the table array A1:C5 and return the value from the third column (column C), which corresponds to the salary of the employee with ID "12345".