VLOOKUP in google sheets

Google Sheets VLOOKUP - syntax and usage.

 The VLOOKUP function in Google Sheets is designed to perform a vertical lookup - search for a key value (unique identifier) down the first column in a specified range and return a value in the same row from another column.

Function Syntax

=VLOOKUP(lookup value, table range, column number, [true/false])

• Lookup value. The cell that has the unique identifier.
• Table range. The range of cells that has the identifier in the first column, followed by the rest of the data in the other columns.
• Column number. The number of the column that has the data you’re looking for. Don’t get that confused with the column’s letter. In the above illustration, the states are in column 4.
• True/False. This argument is optional. True means that an approximate match is acceptable, and False means that only an exact match is acceptable.

Please see following example to understand the application of vlookup function.
Example # 01

Explanation
The function we have used in the above screen shot is as follows;

=VLOOKUP(A3,$H$3:$I$13,2,false)

In this example A3 means lookup value cell.$H$3:$I$13 range is the table range.Numbr 2 means column number.According to the range table it is second column,if not i column according to our example.
Please carefully study above image.There we have two tables.One is called Main table and the other one is called lookup table.Then what we need to do here is to math ID column with the lookup table.In that way we can combine tables and extract details from one anther.

Example # 02

For this vlookup example we can give a named range,it makes easy our task when it comes to a large database.

To give a named range please follow this path:

• Go to Data tab and click on it.
• From the drop down list select Named ranges

Then you can see a form as shown in the below image and give a suitable name for your Named range.After that give the table range then click on the ok button.According to our example Data range is as follows;

A2:F13 

In this example we expects to get student names for student IDs.There we have entered student ID numbers to A16 column and we want to get the student names to B16 column.once you entered the vlookup function to A16 column and drag it down until the A26 column to get details for other rows too.

Limitations or vlookup function

1. Google Sheets VLOOKUP cannot look at its left, it always searches in the first (leftmost) column of the range. To do a left Vlookup, use Google Sheets Index Match formula.
2. Vlookup in Google Sheets is case-insensitive, meaning it does not distinguish lowercase and uppercase characters. For case-sensitive lookup, use this formula.
3. If VLOOKUP returns incorrect results, set the is_sorted argument to FALSE to return exact matches.
4. When is_sorted set to TRUE or omitted (Vlookup with the closest match), remember to sort the first column of range in ascending order.
5. Google Sheets VLOOKUP can search with partial match based on the wildcard characters: the question mark (?) and asterisk (*). Please see this Vlookup formula example for more details.