vlookup????

**lee_har** · 01-27-2007, 08:47 AM

hi guys, i need your help once again.
this should be really really easy but i've been at it for 2 hours now and i'm losing the will to live.
problem:
i have a single cell which uses a drop down list to select its content i.e ash,oak,maple.... etc, at the side of the original list of species i have coresponding prices.
what i need is the formula for a second cell to cross match my species from the drop down list with its price and return the value of the price.
i'm sure it should be vlookup but i'm getting unpredictable results.
help

cheers in advance
Lee

**lee_har** · 01-27-2007, 09:05 AM

ok i think i've stumbled across the answer myself, still dont understand it but it's working now.
i needed to enter "0" in the fourth field of vlookup (range_lookup) this seems to make it return the price from the same row as my species which was where i was struggling.
if anyone wants to try to explain how vlokup should work in laymans terms ....fell free

**arthurbr** · 01-27-2007, 11:55 AM

Some nice explanation can be found here :
http://www.contextures.com/xlFunctions02.html

**starguy** · 01-27-2007, 12:13 PM

following link might help you understand VLOOKUP in a better way

http://www.excel-vba.com/excel-28F-function-vlookup.htm

**daddylonglegs** · 01-27-2007, 12:59 PM

Originally Posted by starguy

following link might help you understand VLOOKUP in a better way

http://www.excel-vba.com/excel-28F-function-vlookup.htm

If I was looking for an explanation of VLOOKUP this would confuse me more than anything else. "Fifth argument"????????

In my opinion VLOOKUP is explained pretty well in Excel help.

**claireblinman** · 01-27-2007, 07:32 PM

Vlookup in layman's terms? Will have a go!

The first argument known as Lookup_value just means the value we are going to search for. It may be a value such as a number that we choose to type in at this stage, but most likely we will point it to a cell reference.

The second argument known as table_array means the range of data that contains lookup data. It is useful to give this range a name first before you start the VLOOKUP (by highlighting the range and then going to Insert-Name-Define). This means you can then refer to your range by name rather than having to highlight the range each time you do a VLOOKUP.

The third argument known as col_index_num means which column in the table of lookup data has the values in it we would like to send back as the results of this VLOOKUP. You may have a table with product ID, then product name, then price. If you were looking up product ID and wanted to return price, you would state 3 because price would be the third column.

The fourth argument Range_lookup does not require a value so you can ignore it. You would put true if you wanted an approximate/close match or false if you only want exact matches.

Hope this helps.

**daddylonglegs** · 01-27-2007, 07:50 PM

Originally Posted by claireblinman

The fourth argument Range_lookup does not require a value so you can ignore it.

Hello Claire,

I don't agree with what you say here. That was precisely lee_har's problem, he ignored the fourth argument.

If you don't enter a fourth argument it defaults to TRUE (or 1) and your VLOOKUP won't work correctly unless the first column of the lookup range is sorted ascending.

**lee_har** · 01-28-2007, 08:45 AM

Thanks for all the replies people
comments and links have made it all so clear now.
basically the "fifth argument" was added soley to confuse the more cerebrally challenged such as myself,set it to 0 or false and and the whole function works like a dream.

**claireblinman** · 02-01-2007, 06:57 PM

Thanks for pointing out that last bit, guys. I hadn't actually come across this problem before but managed to replicate it.

Cheers,

Claire

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