Excel VLOOKUP is not working

Question

Excel VLOOKUP is not working though I have followed exact syntax.

=VLOOKUP(C1,A1:B5,1,FALSE)

returns #N/A

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You are searching the first column (`1`,`2`,`3`,`4`,`5`) for `a` — Joe, Jun 17 '14 at 06:57
possible duplicate of [VLOOKUP giving #N/A and I have no idea why](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21618359/vlookup-giving-n-a-and-i-have-no-idea-why) — L42, Jun 17 '14 at 07:08

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 17 '14 at 06:58

1

Use this instead:

=INDEX(A1:A5,MATCH(C1,B1:B5,0))

returns 1 which I assume is what you want.

In fact, I would suggest (almost) always using this INDEX-MATCH combo rather than VLOOKUP. It's much more flexible.

answered Jun 17 '14 at 06:58

what if multiple matches found ? will it throw first matched one ? – logan Jun 17 '14 at 07:06
The answer is in [Excel help for `MATCH`](http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/match-HP005209168.aspx). – Jean-François Corbett Jun 17 '14 at 07:09

1 Answers1