How To Use Index Match | An Alternative To Vlookup
In this video, learn how to use the INDEX MATCH function as a powerful alternative to VLOOKUP in Google Sheets, allowing for more flexible data retrieval without the constraints of column positioning.
you might be wanting to do the reverse of VLOOKUP . Meaning, when you use VLOOKUP , you're always looking at a left column and getting something to the right of it.
what if I want the item name? What if I want the skew from the item name? They're reversed. I would have to switch around my entire table . But what if I can't switch my table around? Each time that I want to search by a different item. Maybe sometimes I want to search from type to skew or skew to type or item to skew or skew to item or inventory to type. I want to say, okay, what do I have that's 45 items? Right? Index match solves all of this.
So, I want someone to be able to enter maybe a drop-own menu here. And this drop-own menu from a range I want to say is all of our items. So, it's C5 col C. And now make it very easy to just select an item and I want to know the skew because that's how humans work.
look there. And our search type, which we could put here. It's optional. I'm going to put a zero. I like doing that. I like doing comma zero for match . That is my preference.
but we're not going to use match as the first thing. It's actually going to be the second item in our formula . So, we put a comma and then match . And before the comma, we need to say where are we looking?
fun to use. very funible, very flexible alternative to VLOOKUP really you have to have your data in exactly the way that VLOOKUP wants it.