How to use VLOOKUP with exact match in Excel

In Excel, VLOOKUP with an exact match (FALSE) returns a result if and only if there is an identical value in the search column.
In this example, we'll find a company name based on someone's email address:

Formula in G4
=VLOOKUP(G3,B4:D7,3,FALSE)
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1
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Column 1
Column 2
Column 3
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3
Email
Name
Company
Lookup value
4
mary@pg.com
Mary
Procter & Gamble
Result
Rockwell Automation
5
james@ab.com
James
Rockwell Automation
6
elizabeth@cogitize.com
Elizabeth
Cogitize
7
ashley@summables.com
Ashley
Summables
8
Download as .xlsx
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Procedure

  1. Enter =VLOOKUP in cell G4, where you want the Company name to appear.
  2. Enter the Lookup value G3, which contains the Email (james@ab.com) you want to look for.
  3. Enter the Search range B4:D7, the range of data containing all the Email and Company values.
  4. Enter Column number 3, as the Company 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 G4, which is Rockwell Automation.

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