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#1
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When to use a VLookup
Hi,
I am an intermediate Excel user who has been asked to learn what a VLookup does. I read through an "Excel Bible" on the matter and checked the online help. I can't seem to figure out why it is so valuable. Why not just sort your records when looking to find or isolate on a value. Can someone tell me when a VLookup can be more valuable than simply sorting records? Thanks, -- Chuck W |
#2
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When to use a VLookup
Hi Chuck,
The Vlookup allows you to retreive data from 2 tables which share a common field. When I say Data, I mean, in its simplest for, 1 column of data. Here is an example. If you have a list of order details with order prices you can Vlookup on the price to another table which has delivery charges and return the deliver charge to your order table. If you set the Range Lookup to "True" it will use the nearest value by rounding down else "False" will look for the exact value You can also use it to comapre 2 lists. If you vlookup between the 2 lists you will get an "#N/A" if the item doesn't appear in the second list I think your reference to sorting come from the "Range Lookup". If you don't set it to "False" the data you are looking in must be sorted by the column your looking up by. HTH. Simon ================================================== ======================= ChuckW wrote: Hi, I am an intermediate Excel user who has been asked to learn what a VLookup does. I read through an "Excel Bible" on the matter and checked the online help. I can't seem to figure out why it is so valuable. Why not just sort your records when looking to find or isolate on a value. Can someone tell me when a VLookup can be more valuable than simply sorting records? Thanks, -- Message posted via http://www.officekb.com |
#3
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When to use a VLookup
Try this experiment...
Open a new workbook Hit function key F5 In the reference box type A51:A25050 Hit ENTER Type this formula: =ROW()-50 Hold down the CTRL key then hit ENTER Hit function key F5 In the reference box type B51:B25050 Hit ENTER Type this formula: =25001-A51 Hold down the CTRL key then hit ENTER Now, using your method, col A is already sorted, find the value from column B that corresponds to 22222 in column A. After you've done that scroll back up to cell D51 and enter this formula in D51: =VLOOKUP(22222,A:B,2) Which method is faster? Now, how would you do this using your method if the data was random and *could not be sorted* ? -- Biff Microsoft Excel MVP "ChuckW" wrote in message ... Hi, I am an intermediate Excel user who has been asked to learn what a VLookup does. I read through an "Excel Bible" on the matter and checked the online help. I can't seem to figure out why it is so valuable. Why not just sort your records when looking to find or isolate on a value. Can someone tell me when a VLookup can be more valuable than simply sorting records? Thanks, -- Chuck W |
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