Dlookup Excel
DLookup function is a built-in function to get the value of a particular field from the set of records or data from table, query, SQL, or Recordset. The result of DLookup function will be the particular field of the first record. The Excel XLOOKUP function is a modern and flexible replacement for older functions like VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, and LOOKUP. XLOOKUP supports approximate and exact matching, wildcards (.?) for partial matches, and lookups in vertical or horizontal ranges. In its simplest form, the VLOOKUP function says: =VLOOKUP (What you want to look up, where you want to look for it, the column number in the range containing the value to return, return an Approximate or Exact match – indicated as 1/TRUE, or 0/FALSE).
Vlookup is the most widely used function in Excel. As we all know Vlookup searches for the given value in a table and brings the value of that column or the column which is in the right side. That means by default Vlookup can look right side in the table. However with the combination of other functions we can make Vlookup to look from right to left. In this article let us understand how to use Vlookup to the left side search.
Now the thing is: You have a total of 3 wildcard characters which you can use in Excel. Asterisk (.): Find any number of characters after a text. For example, you can use “Ex.” to match the text “Excel” from a list. Question Mark (?): Use a question mark to replace with a character. More technically, the VLOOKUP function looks up a value in the first column of a given range and returns a value in the same row from another column. In its common usage, Excel VLOOKUP searches through your data set based on the unique identifier and brings you a piece of information associated with that unique identifier.
How to use Vlookup to the left search
There are three methods to do this. Two methods are with vlookup formula and one more is combination of INDEX and MATCH which is alternate to VLOOKUP FUNCTION.
- Vlookup with IF array formula
- Vlookup with CHOOSE array formula
- INDEX MATCH to lookup left
1. Vlookup with IF array formula
To lookup left, we can use IF function while defining table range in vlookup formula. Detail about how to enter if formula is explained below.
2. Vlookup with CHOOSE array formula
Similar to above formula, instead of IF function, we can use CHOOSE function while defining the table range in Vlookup. CHOOSE with Vlookup can do much more than this, i will explain that in our next post. The details about how to use this formula is explained below.
3. INDEX MATCH to lookup left
The above two formulas will make search Vlookup to the left, but when the data in the table is large, these above formulas will take lot of time and slow down your Excel. To overcome this issue, alternate formula is combination of INDEX and MATCH to perform same task easily.
INDEX function return the value of an element in a table based on row number and column number. MATCH function searches for the given value in a range and return the position for matching value.
The combination of both these functions will be an alternative for Vlookup function. INDEX MATCH is a powerful formula which will do everything which Vlookup dose and much more.
These are the three methods to vlookup to the left in excel. You can download the file with formula in below link.
Dlookup Examples
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