By INDEX MATCH is an advanced lookup formula in Excel that allows you to search for a value in a table and return a corresponding value from a different column or row. It is similar to the VLOOKUP function, but it is generally considered to be more flexible and efficient.
The basic syntax for the INDEX MATCH formula is:
=INDEX(array, MATCH(lookup_value, lookup_range, match_type))
- array: The range of cells that you want to return a value from.
- lookup_value: The value you want to look up in the lookup_range.
- lookup_range: The range of cells where you want to search for the lookup_value.
- match_type: (Optional) A value that specifies whether you want an exact match (0) or an approximate match (1).
Example:
=INDEX(B2:F6, MATCH(A2,B2:B6, 0))
In this example, the INDEX function is looking for the value in cell A2 in the lookup range B2:B6. If it finds a match, it returns the corresponding value from the same row in the array B2:F6. The last argument, “0”, specifies that we want an exact match.
One of the main benefits of using INDEX MATCH over VLOOKUP is that it allows you to search for values in a table regardless of the position of the lookup column. This means you can search for a value in any column and return a value from any other column in the same row, which is not possible with VLOOKUP. Additionally, INDEX MATCH can be more efficient when working with large data sets, because it doesn’t require the first column of the table to be sorted.
