Here’s the information we’ll use: lookup value: 1000130 table array: A215 col index num: 3 This tells VLOOKUP to find the value “1000130” somewhere between A2 and D15, then to look in the third column from the left and return the value. Here’s what the formula looks like: =VLOOKUP(1000130, A215, 3) Executing that formula returns 9.99, the price of item 1000130. You can easily change the arguments to get different information. Changing the product number is the most obvious choice; using 1000135, for example, will get you a different price.
You could also change col index num to 2 to have Excel return the product name instead of the price. Or 4 to return the stock status. You could also use a product name to look up price or stock status, like so: =VLOOKUP(“red bottle cage”, A2:15, 3) Here’s Job Function Email Database where you might get a bit tripped up. In the formula above, we’ve left the table array value the same as before. But now we’re looking up a value in a different column. Will that mess up the equation? No. Excel looks at the entire table for your value, then returns the value from the third column—no matter which column the lookup value is in (as long as it’s to the right of the lookup value). However, if you look for a product name instead of a product number, you might change the table array to B2:15.

In this case, you’d need to use col index num 2 instead of 3, because the price is now in the second column of the array, instead of the third. This is the kind of mistake that it’s easy to make with VLOOKUP. Whenever you’re using the function, make sure to double check your table array and column index numbers to make sure it’s returning the right information. One way that you can minimize the chances of this happening is to write a formula that will always return the right information and make it easy to put in new lookup values. In our case, we might do something like this: vlookup excel studocu university study Changing the lookup value to a cell reference means whatever you type in that cell will become the lookup value in the VLOOKUP.