So, use this approximate match with caution. If you omit this in VLOOKUP, then the default is taken as 1, i.e. If it’s not sorted, then VLOOKUP may give you a #N/A error or incorrect result.When using an approximate match, ensure the key column table_array is sorted.Here are a couple of things you should remember here: As a next step, it tries to go a step back and returns the closest match, which is 544. Here’s how you can visualize the general workflow of VLOOKUP.Įxplanation: VLOOKUP tries to find out whether there is an exact match present for 550. So, you should keep this in mind while preparing your data or writing the function. VLOOKUP only look at the rightĪt the backend, the function always searches to the right, starting from the top.

Learn more about the relative and absolute references in this guide, which I explained in detail. Finally, the proper formula becomes this. So, always use the absolute reference with the $ sign or press F4 to convert it. That’s not good if the table_array is changing for each key value. That is, the following search happens with B12:F17. If you search a set of values with relative reference and drag the cell handle to fill up the rest of the rows, then B11:F16 gets incremented. In the above example, you can see the range reference is used as B11:F16. An absolute and relative reference in VLOOKUP Since you understand the basics, let’s learn some important aspects of VLOOKUP. VLOOKUP basic example in LibreOffice Calc Here’s a detailed explanation in an image. 572 in the range B11:F16, and returns column # 4 from the range. In the above example, if I need to find out the email address of Adrian whose ID is 572 I should use the following formula: =VLOOKUP(C6,B11:F16,4,0)Įxplanation: The above formula searches C6, i.e. Search_type: 0=Exact match 1=Approximate match default is 1 (approx match). Syntax of VLOOKUP =VLOOKUP(search_key, table_array, column number of table array to be returned, search_type) search_key: the value you want to search forĬolumn number: if found which column of value you want to return

VLOOKUP and #N/A errors in LibreOffice Calc.

The key should always be the first column in the table array.

An absolute and relative reference in VLOOKUP.

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