it's still not clear to me how to do it. If i have values in columns A,B and
C in my reference table and need to match up the same values in the same row
in column A and B to return the value of column C in my data then how does
that work? for example:
Reference table
column A|Column B| Column C
blue red purple
red yellow orange
black yellow brown

data table
column A|Column B| Column C
red green
red yellow
blue yellow

SO i want column A and B in the data table to match up so that it gives the
correct C value from the reference table. can anyone further explain how to
use the V-look up for that?
"Bernie Deitrick" wrote:

Lisa,

VLOOKUP can match a value in the first column and return the value from any
other column - and the same row as the matched value - just expand the
second range to include the data that you want to have returned, and use the
third parameter to specify the column number. For example, to match a value
in column A and return the value from column C, along the lines of

=VLOOKUP("Lisa",A1:C10,3,FALSE)

The looked-up value can also be a cell reference:
=VLOOKUP(F1,A1:C10,3,FALSE)

--
HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP
"lisa" wrote in message
...
on excel,i've been using v-lookup to get values in the same row from one
column but i was wondering if it was possible to use data in 2 columns and
get a value in the same row to transfer into my data sheet. I looked at
every function in the program but can't seem to find the way to do that.
if
anyone knows how to do this, pls respond to this. thanks-lisa