VLOOKUP VS MATCH INDEX – EXCEL

27th Aug, 2015

Madhusudan Patra(INMPCL)
EUC & Automation Solutions Team

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 Introduction

Biography:
 Overall 10+yrs of working experience
 ITIL® 2011 Foundation & MCTS - Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5,
Windows Forms & ASP.Net Applications certified
 Automation and Training (Excel, VBA, MS-Access, SharePoint)
 Hobbies:- Watching Cricket, Cooking

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CONTENTS
 What’s Vlookup?

 What’s Match?

 What’s Index?

 Vlookup Vs Match Index

 Q & A Session

 Feedback

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 WHAT’S VLOOKUP?
VLOOKUP()
Looks for a given value in a vertical list, and once it has spotted that value, it would use that row and return
the value from the specified column number.

=VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array, col_index_num, range_lookup)

lookup_value - the value to search for.

table_array - two or more columns of data or a range
col_index_num - the column number in table_array from which the value in the corresponding row should be returned.
range_lookup - determines whether you are looking for an exact match (FALSE) or approximate match (TRUE or omitted).

Similarity with MS Access Queries:

SELEC EMP_NAME FROM EMP_TABL WHERE EMP_ID=‘1001’

T E Always “FALSE”

=VLOOKUP (lookup_value, table_array, col_index_num, range_lookup)

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 WHAT’S MATCH?
MATCH()
Looks for a value/string in a list/range, and returns its position.

=MATCH(lookup_value, lookup_array, [match_type])

lookup_value - this is the number or text you are looking for. This can be a value, a cell reference or logical value.
lookup_array - a range of cells being searched.
match_type - this parameter tells the MATCH function whether you want to return an exact match or the nearest match:
 1 - finds the largest value that is less than or equal to the lookup_value. The values in the lookup array must be sorted in ascending order, i.e.
from smallest to largest.
 0 - finds the first value that is exactly equal to the lookup_value. In the INDEX / MATCH combination, you almost always need the exact
match, so the third argument of your MATCH function is "0".
 -1 - finds the smallest value that is greater than or equal to lookup_value. The values in the lookup array must be sorted in descending order,
i.e. from largest to smallest.

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WHAT’S INDEX?
INDEX()
Returns a value from a list/range/table based on the specified row and column number

=INDEX(array, row_num, [column_num])

array - a range of cells being searched.

row_num - the row number in array from which you want to return a value. If omitted, the column_num is required.
column_num - the column number in array from which you want to return a value. If omitted, row_num is required.

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VLOOKUP VS MATCH INDEX…1
People were aware and quite proficient in using VLOOKUP, but most of them had no idea about
INDEX/MATCH.
Some of the queries about Index/Match formulas:
 Is it a lookup and reference formula? (Yes! Maybe the best of the lot)
 Is it a new Excel 2010 function? (NO!)
 Can it reference data between different worksheets or workbooks? (Yes)
 Is it better than VLOOKUP? (we will find out soon)

=VLOOKUP (“Peru”, $B$2:$D$10, 2, FALSE)

=INDEX ($C$2:$C$10, MATCH("Peru",$B$2:$B$10,0))

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VLOOKUP VS MATCH INDEX…2
Popularity
VLOOKUP, takes its hand up as the name itself says LOOKUP

Ease of Use
VLOOKUP takes 3 arguments (fourth is optional) and is easier to understand as compared with Index/Match.
INDEX & MATCH are 2 separate formulas that take 3 arguments each and should be combined to do a lookup.

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VLOOKUP VS MATCH INDEX…3
Flexibility
VLOOKUP is a great function but has a few limitations:
 It can not lookup and return a value which is to the left of the look-up value.

 It works only with data which is arranged vertically.

 VLOOKUP would give a wrong result if you add/delete a new column in your data

 When using the VLOOKUP function, remember that the total length of your lookup criteria should not exceed 255
characters, otherwise you will end up having the #VALUE! error.

 INDEX–MATCH combo can lookup and return a value which is to the left of the lookup value, and it can handle both
horizontally and/or vertically structured data.
 Also, since we are using MATCH to find the position of column, it does not matter if you add or delete a column. The
Match part of the formula would automatically take care of the position.
 Dataset contains long strings i.e. more than 255 chars, INDEX /MATCH is the only working solution.

Speed
 If you are working with relatively small tables, the difference in Excel's performance will most likely be unnoticeable.

 But if you use large worksheets with millions record, Excel will work much faster if you use MATCH INDEX rather than

VLOOKUP. INDEX /MATCH combo increases Excel's performance by 13% compared to VLOOKUP.

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VLOOKUP VS MATCH INDEX…4
Conclusion
INDEX/MATCH is a powerful combo that has more flexibility and speed formula than the VLOOKUP.

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 Q&A

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