You say, “I could never use INDEX(MATCH): It looks too complicated!” Well, here is the very simplest example, which anyone can master (or mistress). Here we are only looking for an exact match. For simplicity, we will use one-column arrays only. Once you are happy with this, if you want two-dimensional examples, read this following…
When you want to look up data in Excel, you can choose from various functions: LOOKUP (in two forms), VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, and the combination of INDEX(MATCH). Which should you use? Here’s a flowchart to help guide you: The first and most important question is, “do you want an exact match or an approximate match?” If…
For some lookups, the INDEX and MATCH functions used together may be the solution. Together, they are more robust and versatile than VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, and LOOKUP. MATCH returns the position of the matched item in a one-dimensional list. It can do an exact or approximate match. MATCH(lookup_value, lookup_array, 0) does an exact match. INDEX returns…