The Excel function: VLOOKUP
Description
You can use the VLOOKUP function to search the first column of a range (range: Two or more cells on a sheet. The cells in a range can be adjacent or nonadjacent.) of cells, and then return a value from any cell on the same row of the range. For example, suppose that you have a list of employees contained in the range A2:C10. The employees' ID numbers are stored in the first column of the range, as shown in the following illustration.
If you know the employee's ID number, you can use the VLOOKUP function to return either the department or the name of that employee. To obtain the name of employee number 38, you can use the formula =VLOOKUP(38, A2:C10, 3, FALSE). This formula searches for the value 38 in the first column of the range A2:C10, and then returns the value that is contained in the third column of the range and on the same row as the lookup value ("Axel Delgado").
The V in VLOOKUP stands for vertical. Use VLOOKUP instead of HLOOKUP when your comparison values are located in a column to the left of the data that you want to find.