

‘ lookup_value’ = “A*” (Any word starting with ‘A’ alphabet). The first argument to the function i.e.Note: Simply placing the tilde sign (~) before any wildcard character tells Excel that the wildcard character (‘*’ or ‘?’) should be treated as a string and not as a wildcard operator. Generally, we can use the following two wildcard operators with the Excel VLOOKUP function. Here we have to find the score of the student whose first name starts with ‘A’. Dragging this formula itself makes the necessary changes in the formula to make it correct for the below elements as well.Įxample 5: In this example, we will use wildcard operators along with Vertical Lookup. Note that the values that I have explained above are only for the first element.

‘ range_lookup’ = FALSE (Signifies that we only want the exact match). ‘ column_index’ = 2 (the column number whose value the vertical lookup function should return). ‘ table_array’ = $F$3:$G$14 (Range of Element Table 2) – If you are wondering what are these ‘$’ signs along with the table reference, then you should read this post. ‘ lookup_value’ = C3 (Reference for first element). So, in this case, the VLOOKUP function would be:Īfter applying this formula for the first element we have to drag the formula below (using the fill handle) for other elements. Range_lookup: This specifies whether the match should be exact or approximate. Note that this ‘ table_array’ should always contain ‘ lookup_value’ in its leftmost column.Ĭol_index_num: This specifies the positional reference of the column that you want the VLOOKUP to return. Table_array: This is the range of the table from which the values are to be fetched. In our case lookup_value is in the cell B4 i.e. Lookup_value: This is the value based on which the lookup is to be performed. Solution: Now, lets try to apply a VLOOKUP to find the solution. Objective: Our objective is to find the salary of any particular employee (say: Benjamin Mutricy) based on his name. Let’s try to understand this with a sample problem.
#Excel find duplicates vlookup how to
We will discuss it later in this article.īefore we understand how to use a Vertical Lookup function, we must understand what its objective is. Vertical Lookup allows you to use wildcard characters in the ‘ lookup_value’ argument.So, it is better to omit this argument in case you need to perform either an approximate or an exact match. The default value of ‘ range_lookup’ is TRUE.It returns a ‘#REF!’ error if the value of ‘ column_index’ is greater than the number of columns in the ‘ table_array’.


