How to Vlookup using Dates in Excel?
VLOOKUP can be used to search for values based on dates in Excel. Here are the steps to perform a VLOOKUP using dates:
- Ensure that your data is organized in a table with column headers.
- Determine which column you will use to search for the date (this will be the “lookup column”).
- Convert the date you want to search for to a serial number that Excel can recognize. To do this, simply format the date as a number. You can do this by selecting the cell with the date and then choosing “Number” from the “Format Cells” menu.
- In a cell where you want to display the result of the VLOOKUP function, type the formula “=VLOOKUP(lookup_value,table_array,col_index_num,range_lookup)”.
- Replace “lookup_value” with the serial number of the date you want to search for, “table_array” with the range of cells that contains your data (including column headers), and “col_index_num” with the number of the column that contains the value you want to return.
- If you want to search for an exact match, set “range_lookup” to FALSE. If you want to search for an approximate match, set “range_lookup” to TRUE.
Here’s an example: Let’s say you have a table that lists sales data for each day of the month. You want to find the row that contains the sales data for January 15, 2023. The formula would look like this:
=VLOOKUP(44282, A2:B32, 2, FALSE)
In this formula, 44282 is the serial number for January 15, 2023, A2:B32 is the table_array (assuming the table starts in cell A2 and ends in cell B32), 2 is the col_index_num (since the sales data is in the second column), and FALSE is the range_lookup (since you want an exact match). When you press Enter, the formula will return the sales data for January 15, 2023, which is in the same row as the date.
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