You could use MATCH on the column headings to return the column
number, so instead of your 3 you would have something like:

MATCH(A$1:D$1,"heading",0)

If columns are inserted between A and D the formula will automatically
adjust.

Hope this helps.

Pete

On Aug 17, 9:17*am, ArcticWolf
wrote:
Hi,

I have a vlookup which returns the value from a table called data. *The
column I want from the table is column 3, so =vlookup(a1,data,3,false)

However, the table will expand over the coming months with new columns
inserted before the 3rd column in the data table. *This will make my lookup
incorrect as the data I want is not in column 3 (but in 4 or 5 etc...) *

The column heading will always remain the same (if that is of use?), so how
can I get Excel to find the column I need as opposed to using the
col_index_num?

TIA,

AW