How to use VLOOKUP in Excel

In Excel, VLOOKUP is a fast and easy way to find information when the data is organized in columns.
In this example, we'll retrieve an employee's email based on their ID:

Formula in G4
=VLOOKUP(G3,B4:D7,3,FALSE)
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
1
2
Column 1
Column 2
Column 3
👇 Try changing this value
3
ID
Name
Email
Lookup value
4
101
James
james@example.com
Result
elizabeth@example.com
5
102
Mary
mary@example.com
6
103
Elizabeth
elizabeth@example.com
7
104
Ashley
ashley@example.com
8
Download as .xlsx
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Procedure

  1. Enter =VLOOKUP in cell G4, where you want the Email address to appear.
  2. Enter the Lookup value G3, containing the ID (103) you want to look for.
  3. Enter the Search range B4:D7, the range of data that contains all the ID and Email values.
  4. Enter Column number 3, as the Email column is the 3rd column of the Search range.
  5. Enter FALSE to look for an exact match.

Result

The final formula is: =VLOOKUP(G3, B4:D7, 3, FALSE)
VLOOKUP returns the value in D6, which is elizabeth@example.com.

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Next →How to use VLOOKUP with exact match