Use XLOOKUP in Excel for Beginners




XLOOKUP (Excel Lookup) is a newer function in Microsoft Excel that was introduced in Excel 365 and is designed to be an improvement over VLOOKUP. Here's how to use the XLOOKUP function in Excel:

1. Select the cell where you want the result of the XLOOKUP function to appear.
2. Type =XLOOKUP (to begin the function and then select the cell that contains the value you want to look up.
3. Next, select the range of cells that contains the data you want to retrieve. The first column of this range does not have to be the column that contains the values you want to look up, unlike VLOOKUP.
4. Type a comma and then enter the column number of the data you want to retrieve, starting from the leftmost column of the range you selected in step 3. For example, if you want to retrieve data from the third column of the range, you would enter 3.
5. Type another comma, and then enter the column number of the column that contains the values you want to look up.
6. Type another comma and then enter FALSE if you want an exact match or TRUE if you want an approximate match.
7. Type another comma, and then enter the default value to be returned in case the lookup value is not found.
8. Close the function by typing). Press Enter.
9. The XLOOKUP function will return the data from the specified column in the same row as the value you looked up.

Example:

=XLOOKUP(A2, B1:D10, 3, 2, false, "Not found") - where A2 is the cell that contains the value you want to look up, B1:D10 is the range of cells that contains the data you want to retrieve, 3 is the column number of the data you want to retrieve, 2 is the column number of the column that contains the values you want to look up, false indicates that you want an exact match and "Not found" is the default value to be returned in case the lookup value is not found.

Note: XLOOKUP is available only for Excel 365, for previous versions of Excel, you can use VLOOKUP.