VLOOKUP Basics

Last reviewed Jun 1, 2026 Content v20260601

Track mode

none

Means

Read / quiz

Reading

~1 min

Level

intermediate

This lesson

An orientation to the Excel track—workbooks, formulas, pivots, charts, and analyst workflows you practice in your own spreadsheet app.

Business partners still live in spreadsheets—developers who read formulas catch bugs in exports and speak the same language in reviews.

You will apply VLOOKUP Basics in contexts like: Reconciling SKU lists, price books, and CRM exports.

Read the lesson, type formulas in your local Excel or compatible spreadsheet, rebuild examples in excel-practice.xlsx, and complete MCQs—no in-browser runner. Also read the interview prep blocks; sketch Inputs/Calcs/Outputs sheets for a report you know.

When you exchange CSV/xlsx with non-engineers—or before analyst interviews; pair with /sql/intro for warehouse metrics.

VLOOKUP finds a key in the first column of a table and returns a value from a column to the right—ubiquitous in business spreadsheets.

Syntax

=VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array, col_index_num, [range_lookup])
=VLOOKUP(A2, $F$2:$H$100, 3, FALSE)

FALSE

FALSE (exact match) is default for IDs. TRUE requires sorted first column—approximate match.

Limitation

Cannot look left—key must be leftmost column. INDEX/MATCH or XLOOKUP fix this.

Important interview questions and answers

Q: FALSE meaning?
A: Exact match lookup.
Q: Look left?
A: VLOOKUP cannot—use INDEX/MATCH or XLOOKUP.

Self-check

What does the 4th argument FALSE mean?
Why can't VLOOKUP return a column left of the key?

Tip: Lock table with $F$2:$H$100 before copying VLOOKUP down.

Interview prep

FALSE?: Exact match for IDs.

Discussion

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Starter discussion topics

FALSE exact match?
Look left limit?

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