lookup and vlookup
 

I just finished a lookup formula in which I had to make
very long columns because the "lookup" function did not
seem to work if I had 3 shorter sets of columns, and hold
the ctrl button down while I highlighted the sections.

Is there a way to accomplish this without having to have a
mile long continuous column? I was thinking "vlookup" but
that doesn't seem to work because I think I have to enter
one column # in which it would retrieve the data from. So
if I have broken my columns down into 3 sets in order to
save a little space, it would not work because I would
want to retrieve data from 3 separate column #'s.

Thanks. Scott