excel computer training london - VLOOKUP function

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ReplyThu 14 Dec 2006, 10:24Delegate Katie said...

Katie has attended:
Excel Advanced course

VLOOKUP function

I'm having some trouble with VLOOKUP. It doesn't seem to work unless the data table it is reading from is in alphabetical/numerical order.... but I'm sure this can't be right!

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ReplyThu 14 Dec 2006, 14:52Trainer Amanda said...

RE: VLOOKUP function

Hi Katie

Thanks for your question.

I think the answer lies in what you enter in for the 'range lookup' part of this function. This is the last part of the function where you enter in true or false.

If you enter in true for this part of the function, then the vlookup function will find the nearest possible match and display this. If you use true then the result that is displayed does depend on how the information is sorted - you do need to put it in some kind of order (alpahabetical or numerical) for it to work.

If you enter false for this part of the function, then the vlookup function needs to find an exact match. If you enter false then the result is not dependant on the information being sorted in a particular order.

I hope this helps you.

Amanda

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Excel tip:

Adding date and time

Here are two quick ways to add the date and time to your spreadsheet:

1) Type =NOW(), which displays both date and time in the same cell
or
2) Hold Ctrl and type the colon (:) into one cell for the date and the semi-colon(;)into another for the time.

Note that =NOW() updates to the current date/time whenever the spreadsheet recalculates.

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