This document accompanies the full article on VitaminCM.com. See the full tutorial at http://vitamincm.com/excel-vlookup-software-tutorial/ The article shows you how to use MicroSoft Excel's VLOOKUP function to compare values in two lists.

1. www.VitaminCM.com
Master the Excel VLookup with this Simple Tutorial
By Christopher Masiello

2. Become an Office Hero with the
Vlookup Function in Excel
 Over the years I have been the Excel tips guy in my office. There are so
many amazing things that Excel can do, but the one thing I get asked
more than every other feature combined is: “How do I do a Vlookup”.
Mastery of the Vlookup seems to be the one Excel trick that people
use to separate experts from novices. Well, guess what? It’s really not
hard at all.
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3. What Exactly is a Vlookup?
 The Vlookup function in Excel is used to see if a
value in one cell (or list of cells) is in another group
of cells. (“V” is for vertical – you can use th Hlookup
function to check horizontally too) Looks for a value
in the leftmost column of a table, and then returns
a value in the same row from a column you specify.
Take a look at the data below. Column A has a list
of people who have already paid their bill. Column B
has a list of customers who received services. We
want to find out which customers have paid and
which still owe payments. This is a typical Vlookup
scenario: compare two lists and identify the
differences.
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4. Naming a Range in Excel
 Before you actually create your Vlookup
formula, you should create a “Named
Range”. Excel can take a range of cells and
assign a name to it that can be referenced
in functions and formulas throughout the
workbook.
 Select the range of cells that contain the
values that you want to check against.
 TIP: If you have a list of values that may be
added to, select a range that is bigger than
your existing list. This way, when the list
grows, the new values will still be included
in your named range. After you select your
range of cells, you are ready to give it a
name. Right click on the highlighted cells
and select Name a Range from the menu.
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5. Slide Title
 The New Name menu
will open. Type a name in
the Name field. You can
modify the actual range
of cells (now or later) in
the Refers to field.
 Click the OK button.
 Now you can refer to this
range (Paid) anywhere in
this workbook.
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6. Creating the Vlookup Formula
 Now that we have a range of
data to check against, we are
ready to build our formula.
 Click to the right of the first
value that you want to check.
 Click the formula builder
button (fx) to search for the
Vlookup function.
 Select the Lookup &
Reference category and scroll
down to the VLOOKUPfunction.
 Click the OK button.
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7.  The Function Arguments wizard will open.
 The Function Arguments wizard lists what the overall function does below the
fields. When you click in one of the fields an explanation of what goes into
that field is displayed. There are four fields to populate:
 Lookup Value
 Table Array
 Column Index
 Number Range Lookup
 Click in the Lookup Value field and enter the cell for the value that you want to
check against the range (B2 – Allan).
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8.  Click in the Table Array field and enter the name of the range that we want to
search for the Lookup Value.
 Type “paid” in the Table Array field to reference the named range of values.
Notice how the values in the named range appear to the right of the Table
Array field.
 Click in the Column Index Number field.
 The range that we named contained all of the values in one column (A). If we
had a range of data that resided in more than one consecutive column, we
could specify which column’s value that we wanted to return to the formula
cell. Since we only have one column, type “1” in the field.
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9. Slide Title
 Click in the Range
Lookup field.
 There are two values that
you can use in the Range
Lookup
field: TRUE orFALSE. True
will find the “closest” value
in the range and False will
only find EXACT matches.
 Typically I want an exact
match.
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10.  If the value is in the range the value from
column 1 will be displayed in our cell.
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11. Extending the formula down the rest
of the list
 Just copy and paste the formula you
built (C2) and paste it down the rest
of the list.
 All of the remaining values will be
checked against the range.
 If a value is not found “#NA” will be
displayed. In our case, we will know
that those people did not pay yet.
 Since we made our named range a
little bigger that the existing
data, we can add more data to the
empty cells in the range and have
them rechecked.
 The example below shows that as
long as we type into the range that
we created it will be included in the
formulas that reference it.
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12. Additional Resources
 This slide deck accompanies the full article
on VitaminCM.com. See the full tutorial at
http://vitamincm.com/excel-vlookup-
software-tutorial/ The article shows you
how to use Microsoft Excel's VLOOKUP
function to compare values in two lists.
 Master the Excel VLookup with this Simple
Tutorial
www.VitaminCM.com

13. www.VitaminCM.com
Master the Excel VLookup with this Simple Tutorial
By Christopher Masiello