lookups

How to Use the MATCH Formula in Excel: Three Practical Examples

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Excel's MATCH formula is an extremely useful yet underutilized function within Excel's toolkit of formulas.  The reason people underestimate its value is because the MATCH formula's primary objective is fuzzy and ambiguous.  Without the proper context, its usefulness and potential applications are not obvious. The MATCH Continue Reading >>

How to Use IF ISNA to Hide VLOOKUP Errors

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When writing a series of VLOOKUP formulas, one of the annoying things is having to see the "#N/A" error after Excel has determined a lookup value is not available.  While we don't want to show any values when they are truly unavailable, from a visual design perspective, it's sometimes better just to show a blank space ... Continue Reading >>

The Ultimate Guide to VLOOKUP

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Learning the VLOOKUP formula is, for most people, the first step taken towards becoming an advanced Excel user.  For me, this milestone actually occurred in 2004 during an internship at Microsoft in the company's Commercial Operations Division.  One of the senior analysts showed me the ropes by teaching me the formula.  While Continue Reading >>

How to Use the VLOOKUP HLOOKUP Combination Formula

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VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP are two of the most popular formulas in Excel and using them together is one of the first formula combinations that people learn.  While using INDEX MATCH for vertical lookups and INDEX MATCH MATCH for matrix style lookups are superior approaches, it's still a good idea to learn this formula combination and ... Continue Reading >>

Top Mistakes Made When Using INDEX MATCH

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INDEX MATCH Not Working?  The following article provides the most likely causes of your problems with using INDEX MATCH. If you're an advanced user of Excel, you've likely already made the switch from VLOOKUP to INDEX MATCH because of the several advantages that INDEX MATCH provides.  Within Excel, INDEX MATCH is one of the most Continue Reading >>

Excel Random Student Name Generator

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While cold calling is practice that most students dread, from a teacher’s perspective, it’s an effective way to encourage students to prepare for and participate in class. We’ve all been on the wrong side of this situation at least once in our lives, coming to class completely unprepared.  And the natural thing to do when unprepared Continue Reading >>

How to Use INDEX MATCH MATCH

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If you're using Excel and you’ve already learned how to use INDEX MATCH, you’re well on your way to becoming proficient with Excel lookups.  What INDEX MATCH MATCH offers you is a more powerful version of the formula.  Instead of just a vertical lookup, INDEX MATCH MATCH allows you to perform a matrix lookup, which ... Continue Reading >>

How to Use HLOOKUP

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HLOOKUP is essentially the horizontal version of VLOOKUP.  The primary reason for using HLOOKUP in Excel is for when you have key data points arranged horizontally across the top of your table.  This usually happens when you are dealing with time series data; people have a tendency to list lookup values horizontally with this type Continue Reading >>

Why INDEX MATCH is Better Than VLOOKUP

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When deciding between which vertical lookup formula to use, the majority of Excel experts agree that INDEX MATCH is a better formula than VLOOKUP.  However, many people still resort to using VLOOKUP because it’s a simpler formula.  One major driver of this problem is that most people still don’t fully understand the benefits of switching ...

How to Use VLOOKUP MATCH

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VLOOKUP MATCH is one of several possible lookup formulas within Microsoft Excel.  This tutorial assumes you already have a decent understanding of how to use VLOOKUP.  If you do not, please click here for a beginner’s tutorial on VLOOKUP. Objective VLOOKUP MATCH is an improved variation of your basic VLOOKUP or INDEX MATCH formula.  Using VLOOKUP MATCH ...