What will be the result returned by the given snippet for the dataset given below?
=VLOOKUP(A2,A2:C7,3,TRUE)
| | A | B | C |
| :----- | :------- | :--------- | :--- |
| 1 | Name | Department | ID |
| 2 | Sally | HR | 10 |
| 3 | Ash | HR | 21 |
| 4 | Misty | Sales | 11 |
| 5 | Brock | Account | 23 |
| 6 | Jennet | Sales | 33 |
| 7 | Jemma | Business | 12 |
A. 33
B. $100,000.0
C. 12
D. 10
Answer (2)
VLOOKUP searches for 'Sally' in the first column of the range A2:C7.
An exact match for 'Sally' is found in cell A2.
The function returns the value from the third column (ID) of row 2.
The value in cell C2 is 10, so the result is 10 .
Explanation
Understanding VLOOKUP The VLOOKUP function searches for a value in the first column of a table and returns a value from a specified column in the same row. In this case, the formula is =VLOOKUP(A2,A2:C7,3,TRUE).
Identifying the Arguments The lookup value is the content of cell A2, which is "Sally". The lookup range is A2:C7, which includes the Name, Department, and ID columns from row 2 to row 7. The column index is 3, meaning the function will return a value from the third column (ID). The last argument, TRUE, indicates an approximate match.
Considering Approximate Match Since the approximate match is specified as TRUE, VLOOKUP will look for an exact match first. If it doesn't find an exact match, it will look for the next largest value that is less than the lookup value. However, for the approximate match to work correctly, the first column of the lookup range (A2:A7) must be sorted in ascending order. In this case, the names are not sorted alphabetically.
Finding the Exact Match VLOOKUP searches for "Sally" in the first column (A2:A7). It finds an exact match in cell A2. Therefore, the function returns the value from the third column (ID) of the same row (row 2).
Determining the Result The value in cell C2 is 10. Therefore, the VLOOKUP function returns 10.
Examples
VLOOKUP is useful in scenarios where you need to quickly find related information in a table. For example, in a company directory, you can use VLOOKUP to find an employee's ID number based on their name. If you have a table of product names and prices, you can use VLOOKUP to find the price of a specific product. In education, a teacher could use VLOOKUP to quickly find a student's grade based on their name from a class roster. These applications demonstrate how VLOOKUP simplifies data retrieval in various real-world contexts.
The VLOOKUP function will return 10, as it finds an exact match for 'Sally' in cell A2 and retrieves the corresponding value from the ID column.
;
