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Excel uses relative cell reference when copying the formula to another cell.
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The most important thing when copying the formula down a column is to understand the difference between relative and absolute cell reference.
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The function pulls this value and returns it to the 1st table (cell C3) as a result.Ĭopying a VLOOKUP Formula using Absolute Cell References As we can see, the value of “Product ID” in B3 in the 1st table is 1003, while in the 2nd table Product description for 1003 is Product C. Using the VLOOKUP function in the single cellĪs a result, we will get Product C in the cell B3. Finally, range_lookup has value 0, because we want to find an exact match of “Product ID” values.įigure 3. Col_index_num has value 2, as we want to pull value from the second column of the range. The parameter table_array is $E$3:$F$7 because we want to find value from the range B3:B7. In our example, the lookup_value is the individual cell in “Product ID” column. This will be done based on each corresponding Product. Our goal is to obtain data from the “Product Description” column in the second table and populate it into the same column of the 1st table. Get the Product description using VLOOKUP Both tables consist of “Product ID” (columns B and E) and “Product Description” (columns C and F). In the range B2:C7 we have the result table, while in the range E2:F7 we have the lookup table. Let’s start with examining the structure of the data that we will use.
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This means that we want to find an exact match for a lookup value.įigure 2. col_index_num – a column number in table_array from which we would like to pull a value.table_array – a range in which we want to lookup.lookup_value – a value that we want to find in a table_array.The parameters of the VLOOKUP function are: =VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array, col_index_num, range_lookup) The generic formula for the VLOOKUP function is: Final result Syntax of the VLOOKUP formula
#How to do a vlookup in excel 2016 how to#
In this tutorial, we will learn how to quickly copy a VLOOKUP formula down a column.įigure 1. This is possible by using an absolute cell reference. While using the VLOOKUP function in Excel, we sometimes need to apply it to a range. The results returned will be invalid if the array is not sorted appropriately.How to Copy a VLOOKUP Formula Down a Column You can also use 2 to search a lookup_array sorted in acending order and -2 to sarch a lookup_array sorted in descending order (see about running binary searches in sorted arrays in our post about the DOUBLE VLOOKUP trick). : Use 1 to search starting with the first item, and -1 to search starting from the last item. It is also possible to use 2, which is a wildcard match with special meaning for characters "*", "?" and "~". exact match is the default value, so basically most of the time you won't need to use this argument! You can also use -1 to return the next smaller value if no match is found, or 1 to return the next larger value if no match is found. : like with VLOOKUP or INDEX/MATCH, use 0 for an exact match ( #N/A will be returned if no match is found). : instead of #N/A, you can specify what should be returned in case no match is found. Return_array: this is the range with the result you want Lookup_array: this is the range where you are searching for it Lookup_value: this is the value you are searching for
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