This is a guest post by Daniel Ferry of Excelhero.com.
Have you ever wanted to fetch live stock quotes from excel? In this post we will learn about how to get stock quotes for specified symbols using macros.
One method that has worked well for my clients can be implemented with just a few lines of VBA code. I call it the ActiveRange.
An ActiveRange is an area on a worksheet that you define by simply entering the range address in a configuration sheet. Once enabled, that range becomes live in the sense that if you add or change a stock symbol in the first column of the range, the range will automatically (and almost instantly) update. You can specify any of 84 information attributes to include as columns in the ActiveRange. This includes things such as Last Trade Price, EBITDA, Ask, Bid, P/E Ratio, etc. Whenever you add or change one of these attributes in the first row of the ActiveRange, the range will automatically update as well.
Sound interesting, useful?
In this post, you can learn how to use excel macros to fetch live stock quotes from Yahoo! Finance website. It is also going to be a crash course in VBA for the express purpose of learning how the ActiveRange method works so that you can use it yourself.
Download Excel Stock Quotes Macro:
Click here to download the excel stock quotes macro workbook. It will be much easier to follow this tutorial if you refer to the workbook.
Background – Understanding The Stock Quotes Problem:
The stock information for the ActiveRange will come from Yahoo Finance. A number of years ago, Yahoo created a useful interface to their stock data that allows anyone at anytime to enter a URL into a web browser and receive a CSV file containing current data on the stocks specified in the URL. That’s neat and simple.
But it gets a little more complicated when you get down to specifying which attributes you want to retrieve [information here]. Remember there are 84 discreet attributes available. Under the Yahoo system, each attribute has a short string Tag Code. All we need to do is to concatenate the string codes for each attribute we want and add the resulting string to the URL. We then need to figure out what to do with the CSV file that comes back.
Our VBA will take care of that and manage the ActiveRange. Excel includes the QueryTable as one of its core objects, and it is fully addressable from VBA. We will utilize it to retrieve the data we want and to write those data to the ActiveRange.
Before we start the coding we need to include two support sheets for the ActiveRange. The first is called “YF_Attribs”, and as the name implies is a list of the 84 attributes available on Yahoo Finance along with their Yahoo Finance Tag Codes. The second sheet is called, “arConfig_xxxx” where xxxx is the name of our sheet where the ActiveRange will reside. It contains some configurable information about the ActiveRange which our VBA will use.
All of the VBA code for this project will reside inside of the worksheet module for the sheet where we want our ActiveRange to be. For this tutorial, I called the sheet, “DEMO”.
Writing the Macros to Fetch Stock Quotes:
Press ALT-F11 on your keyboard, which will open the VBE. Double click on the DEMO sheet in the left pane. We will enter out code on the right. To begin with, enter these lines:
Private rnAR_Dest As Range
Private rnAR_Table As Range
Private stAR_ConfigSheetName As String
Always start a module with Option Explicit. It forces you to define your variable types, and will save you untold grief at debugging time. In VBA each variable can be one of a number of variable types, such as a Long or a String or a Double or a Range, etc. For right now, don’t worry too much about this – just follow along.
Sidebar on Variable Naming Conventions
Variable names must begin with a letter. Everyone and their brother seems to have a different method for naming variables. I like to prefix mine with context. The first couple of letters are in lower case and represent the type of the variable. This allows me to look at the variable anywhere it’s used and immediately know its type. In this project I’ve also prefaced the variables with “AR_” so that I know the variable is related to the ActiveRange implementation. In larger projects this would be useful. After the underscore, I include a description of what the variable is used for. That’s my method.
In the above code we have defined three variables and their types. Since these are defined at the top of a worksheet module, they will be available to each procedure that we define in this module. This is known as scope. In VBA, variables can have scope restricted to a procedure, to a module (as we have done above), or they can be global in scope and hence available to the entire program, regardless of module. Again we are putting all of the code for this project in the code module of the DEMO worksheet. Every worksheet has a code module. Code modules can also be added to a workbook that are not associated with any worksheet. UserForms can be added and they have code modules as well. Finally, a special type of code module, called a class module, can also be added. Any global variables would be available to procedures in all of these. However, it is good practice to always limit the scope of your variables to the level where you need them.
In that vein, notice that the three variables above are defined with the word Private. This specifically restricts their scope to this module.
Every worksheet module has the built-in capability of firing off a bit of code in response to a change in any of the sheet’s cell values. This is called the Worksheet_Change event. If we select Worksheet from the combo box at the top and Change in the other combo box, the VBE will kindly define for us a new procedure in this module. It will look like this:
End Sub
Notice that by default this procedure is defined as Private. This is good and as a result the procedure will not show up as a macro. Notice the word Target near the end of the first line. This represents the range that has been changed. Place code between these two lines so that the entire procedure now looks like this:
The Heart of our Excel Stock Quotes Code – Worksheet_Change()
ActivateRange
If Worksheets(stAR_ConfigSheetName).[ar_enabled] Then
If Intersect(Target, rnAR_Dest) Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
If Target.Column <> rnAR_Dest.Column And Target.Row <> rnAR_Dest.Row Then
PostProcessActiveRange
Exit Sub
End If
ActiveRangeResponse
End If
End Sub
That may look like a handful but it’s really rather simple. Let’s step through it. The first line is ActivateRange. This is the name of another sub-procedure that will be defined in a moment. This line just directs the program to run that sub, which provides values to the three variables we defined at the top. Again, since those variables were defined at the top of the module, their values will be available to all procedures in the module. The ActivateRange procedure gives them values.
Next we see this odd looking fellow:
If Intersect(Target, rnAR_Dest) Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
All this does is check to see if the Target (the cell that was changed on the worksheet) is part of our ActiveRange. If it is the procedure continues. If it’s not, the procedure is exited.
The next line checks to see if the cell that was changed is in the first column or first row of the ActiveRange. If it is, the post processing is skipped. If the change is any other part of the ActiveRange, another sub-procedure (defined below) is run to do some post processing of the retrieved data, and then exits this procedure.
If the cell that changed was in the first column or the first row, the program runs another sub-procedure, called ActiveRangeResponse, which is also defined below. ActiveRangeResponse builds the URL for YF, deletes any previous QueryTables related to the ActiveRange, and creates a new QueryTable as specified in our configuration sheet.
That’s it. The heart of the whole program resides here in the Worksheet_Change event procedure. It relies on a number of other subprocedures, but this is the whole program. When a change is made in the ActiveRange’s first column (stock symbols) or its first row (stock attributes), ActiveRangeResponse runs and our ActiveRange is updated.
Understanding other sub-procedures that help us get the stock quotes:
So let’s look at those supporting subprocedures. The first is ActivateRange:
stAR_ConfigSheetName = “arConfig_” & Me.Name
Set rnAR_Dest = Me.Range(Worksheets(stAR_ConfigSheetName).[ar_range].Value)
Set rnAR_Table = rnAR_Dest.Resize(1, 1).Offset(1, 1)
Worksheets(stAR_ConfigSheetName).[ar_YFAttributes] = GetCurrentYahooFinancialAttributeTags
End Sub
Again, all this does is give values to our three module level variables. In addition it builds the concatenated string of YF Tag Codes required for the URL. It does this by calling a function that I’ve defined at the very bottom of the module, called GetCurrentYahooFinancialAttributeTags.
The next subprocedure is ActiveRangeResponse:
Dim vArr As Variant
Dim stCnx As String
Const YAHOO_FINANCE_URL = “http://finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s=[SYMBOLS]&f=[ATTRIBUTES]”
vArr = Application.Transpose(rnAR_Dest.Resize(rnAR_Dest.Rows.Count – 1, 1).Offset(1))
stCnx = Replace(YAHOO_FINANCE_URL, “[SYMBOLS]”, Replace(WorksheetFunction.Trim(Join(vArr)), ” “, “+”))
stCnx = Replace(stCnx, “[ATTRIBUTES]”, Worksheets(stAR_ConfigSheetName).[ar_YFAttributes])
AddQueryTable rnAR_Table.Resize(UBound(vArr)), “URL;” & stCnx
End Sub
Notice that here we have variables defined at the top of this procedure and consequently their scope is limited to this procedure only. This means that we could have the same variable names defined in other procedures but those variables would not be related to these and would have completely different values.
Next notice that we have defined a constant. This is good practice, as it forces us to specify what the constant value is by naming the constant. I could have just used the value where I later use the constant, but then the question arises as to what is this value and where did it come from. Here I have named the value, YAHOO_FINANCE_URL, removing all doubt as to its purpose.
The next line is this:
vArr = Application.Transpose(rnAR_Dest.Resize(rnAR_Dest.Rows.Count - 1, 1).Offset(1))
and it deserves some explanation. Let me back up by saying that whenever we write or read multiple cells from a worksheet we should always try to do it in one go, rather than one cell at a time. The more cells involved the more important this is. Otherwise we pay a massive penalty in processing time. One of the best optimization techniques available is to replace code that loops through cell reads/writes and replace it with code that reads/writes all the cells at once. It can literally be hundreds to thousands of times faster.
Here we are interested in getting the list of all of the stock symbols in the first column of the ActiveRange. So how do we get them in one shot? We use something called a variant array. Notice that we defined vArr at the top of this procedure. A variant array is a special kind of variable that holds a list of values and it DOES NOT CARE what variable types those values are. This is important when retrieving data from a sheet because the data could be numbers, text, Boolean (True or False), etc. Variants are powerful, but they are much slower than other variable types, such as a Long for numeric data for example. However, in the case of retrieving or writing large chunks of data from/to a sheet the slight penalty of the variant is dwarfed by the massive increase in the speed of data transfer.
It’s very simple to retrieve range data (regardless of the size) into a variant array. All you do is:
v = range
where v is defined as a variant and range is any VBA reference to a worksheet range. And magically all of the values in that range are now in v. Note that v is not connected to the range. A change in any of v’s values does not propogate back to the range, and likewise a change to the range does not make it’s way to v all by itself. v will ALWAYS be a two-demensional array. The first dimension is the index of the rows, the second dimension is the index of the columns. So v(1,1) will refer to the value that came from the top left cell in the range. v(6,9) will hold the value that came from the cell in the range at row 6 and column 9.
For most circumstances this two-dimensional format is fine. But we are only retrieving one column of stock symbols. The procedure will still give us a two-dimensional array, with the column dimension being only 1 element wide. This is a shame because VBA has a wonderful function called Join that allows you in one step (no loop) to concatenate every element of an array into a string. You can even specify a custom string to delimit (go in-between) each element in the output string. The problem is that Join only works on single dimensioned arrays 🙁
But there’s always a way, right? We can use the Application.Transpose method on the 2-D array and presto we get a 1-D array. The rest of the line just specifies what range (the stock symbols) to grab.
The next two lines are:
stCnx = Replace(YAHOO_FINANCE_URL, "[SYMBOLS]", Replace(WorksheetFunction.Trim(Join(vArr)), " ", "+"))
stCnx = Replace(stCnx, "[ATTRIBUTES]", Worksheets(stAR_ConfigSheetName).[ar_YFAttributes])
Again a handful, but all we are doing here is replacing the monikers, [SYMBOLS] and [ATTRIBUTES] in the YAHOO_FINANCE_URL constant with the list of stock symbols (delimited by a plus sign) and the string of attributes.
In the final line of the procedure:
AddQueryTable rnAR_Table.Resize(UBound(vArr)), "URL;" & stCnx
we are running another subprocedure called, AddQueryTable and we are telling it where to place the new QueryTable and providing the connection string for the QueryTable, which in this case is the YF URL that we just built.
Nothing unusual happens in the AddQueryTable sub. It just deletes any existing AR related QueryTables and adds the new one according to the options in the configuration sheet.
The PostProcessActiveRange sub is interesting:
If rnAR_Dest.Columns.Count > 2 Then
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
rnAR_Table.Resize(rnAR_Dest.Rows.Count).TextToColumns Destination:=rnAR_Table, DataType:=xlDelimited, Comma:=True
Application.DisplayAlerts = True
Worksheets(stAR_ConfigSheetName).[ar_LocalTimeLastUpdate] = Now
End If
End Sub
Processing Yahoo Finance Output using Query Table & Text-Import Utility:
As mentioned before the data from YF comes back as a CSV file. The QueryTable dumps this into one column. If you were only retrieving one attribute for each stock this would be fine as is. However, two or more attributes is going to result in unwanted commas and multiple attribute values squished into the first column of the QueryTable output. Unfortunately this is poor design by Microsoft, especially when you consider that the QueryTable does not behave like this when it is retrieving SQL data or opening a Text file from disk. You can actually specify this operation to be a text file and it will properly spread the output over all of the columns. To do so, you specify the disk location as being the URL of the YF CSV file, but as Murphy would have it, it’s unbelievably slow and pops up a status dialog as it slowly retrieving the CSV. Using the URL instruction instead of the TEXT instruction at the beginning of the connection string is incredibly fast in comparison, but dumps all of the data into the first column.
So what to do? We’ll just employ Excel’s built-in TextToColumns capability and bam, our data is where we want it.
Our finalized stock quotes fetcher worksheet should look like this:
Download Excel Stock Quotes Macro:
Click here to download the excel stock quotes macro workbook. It will be much easier to follow this tutorial if you refer to the workbook.
Final Thoughts on Excel Stock Quotes
The ActiveRange technique is quite versatile. It can be implemented with other data sources such as SQL, or even lookups to other Excel files, or websites.
In this example it provides a nice way to easily track whatever stocks you may have interest in and up to 84 different attributes of those stocks. You can enable and disable the activeness of the ActiveRange on the fly. You can set the AR to AutoRefresh the data at periods that you set or to not refresh at all.
This is a basic implementation. For example, changing the AutoRefresh setting will have no effect until a new QueryTable is built. That won’t happen until you also add or change a stock symbol or add or change an attribute. An easy enhancement would be to add a little code to the arConfig_DEMO code module to respond to changes to the ar_AutoRefresh named range cell.
Another enhancement would be to eliminate the slight flicker of the update by moving the QueryTable destination to the arConfig_DEMO and then doing the TextToColumns with the destination set to the DEMO sheet. In an effort to simplify this tutorial I have left these easy enhancements as an exercise for you to implement.
Have a question or doubt? Please Ask
Do you have any questions or doubts on the above technique? Have you used ActiveRange or similar implementations earlier? What is your experience? Please share your thoughts / questions using comments.
I read Chandoo.org regularly and will be monitoring the post for questions. But you can also reach me at my blog:
Further References & Help on Excel Stock Quotes [Added by Chandoo]
- Fetching Stock Quotes using Research Pane
- Stock Portfolio Tracker using Google Docs
- QueryTable Object Model & Properties
- Using QueryTable to Generate Dynamic Reports
- Yahoo Finance API Documentation & Example
Excel Hero is dedicated to expanding your notion of what is possible in MS Excel and to inspiring you to become an Excel Hero at your workplace. It has many articles and sample workbooks on advanced Excel development and advanced Excel charting.
54 Responses to “6 Tips for Writing Better VLOOKUPs”
Hi, I am loving the VLOOKUP series this week. 🙂
Could you please expand a little on why you don't recommend using 1 or 0 in place of true or false? I am in the habit of doing this.
"You can even omit the last argument if it is 0"
Excel's default for the last argument is TRUE. Because of this, it's dangerous to omit the last arguement. I would use either FALSE or 0. Never omit if you want an exact match.
Nice series, Chandoo!
.
Your readers may be interested to know that the quickest formula method to do lookups in Excel is an array-entered INDEX.
.
This is one of the many topics covered in the Excel Hero Academy:
Excel Hero Academy
.
Regards,
Daniel Ferry
Excel Hero Academy
Dear Daniel,
I had used index-match with absolute reference for the ranges but when I am resorting the table the formula is not recalulating the lookup value combination.
Regards,
Anish Menacherry
@Anish
Can you post the question at the Chandoo.org Forums
http://chandoo.org/forum/
Please include a sample file so we can review the issue
1. Never use VLOOKUP/HLOOKUP - Always use Match /Index
2. Sort your data before performing a Loookup
3. Use 1/-1 option Match as it is at least 10 times faster than the 0 option- But modified to perform an exact match rather than an approximate match as described below
a) A Column containing a Match Fucntion to Find the Position with the 1/-1 option
b) A Status column containing a Index to check the status (present/not present)
c) Multiple array entered Index colums to pick
In tip number 5 you state, "you can even omit the last argument if it is 0" which is not correct. If you omit the last argument, Range_Lookup, is TRUE, as Mike Alexander points out.
Excellent series - Need some help from the expert. how easy it is to add/expand a named range in a lookup formula?
@Mike & Gregory: I am sorry for the confusion. The formula =VLOOKUP(value, range, column #) assumes last argument as TRUE.
Where as the formula =VLOOKUP(value, range, column #, ) assumes last argument is blank or empty which internally gets treated as 0.
And that is what I mean by you can even omit last argument. I state that "Remember, you must place a comma (,) after the column number if you are planning to use this." otherwise, this will not work.
@Andrew: I suggest not using 0 or 1 as they are more cryptic and lead to confusion when your spreadsheet gets to someone else's hands.
@Daniel: Thanks for that.
@Sam: Good tips. I would just add that using VLOOKUP / HLOOKUP is ok as long as they solve the problem you have and do not take too much time. The performance improvements you get with array entered index or other techniques are minimal when dealing with small and moderately sized data sets.
@Sundeep
Very easy
Have a read of: http://chandoo.org/wp/2009/10/15/dynamic-chart-data-series/
Particularly Point 3. Create a new named range and type OFFSET formula
@Hui - Thanks.
If I have a large workbook with many Vlookups and if I change the range to named range...is there an easy way to change all the formulas? It is more of wishful thinking than a question 🙂
@Sundeep... You can use Apply names from formulas ribbon to apply names to a selected range. This technique works when the ranges are mapped to static references. Dynamic refs. thru OFFSET are bit more tricky.
You can use the find / replace to automatically replace all $A$1:$C$1000 with dynamic range lstData. See this: http://chandoo.org/wp/2009/02/17/spreadsheet-formulas-edit/
@Sundeep
On the Formulas Tab, Click on the Drop Down on the Define Name button and select Apply Names
Select one or all Named Ranges and apply
Excel will go through your worksheet/s and change the Ranges for Named Ranges.
i cannot believe i missed the new to 2007 formula "IFERROR". your mention of this will help reduce the number of characters in many formulars i use (with "ISERROR") by at least 40% along with commensurate reductions in spreadsheet size and calculation speed... not to mention future reduction in typing and debugging time in formulas. thank you. and thank excel.
Newbie here.
I am not able to understand the Tip#1. Use of "val", "tbl". I tried and it kept on giving error.
Chandoo's Tip#1: =VLOOKUP(valSalesPerson,tblData,3,FALSE)
Does it need column headings? And how do you l lookup the value I am looking.
Thanks in advance.
[...] 6 VLOOKUP Tips [...]
[...] VLOOKUP, INDEX, and MATCH: Useful for looking up any text values [...]
I need some help with creating a formula. I have a list of names on tab 1. (About 20) On tab 2 I have a list of names and there total sales (About 3,500) I created a name range for both the first list of names on tab 1 (Producer) and a name range for the second list on tab 2 (Agent_List) The sales on tab 2 for each producer is in the 7th colume.
I need the formula to identify name of Producer (Tab1) from the Agent_List and then choose the total sales for that producer.
This is the formula I put together and I only get #REF!
VLOOKUP(PRODUCER,AGENT_LIST,7,FALSE)
@JimH
I assume you are adding a column next to the Agent_List on Tab 2 and looking up values from the Agent_List and retrieving values from the Producer list
.
So the format for your equation will be:
=VLOOKUP(A2,Producer,7,FALSE)
or
=VLOOKUP(Agent_List,Producer,7,FALSE)
.
Note that the named range Producer must be at least 7 columns wide, not just Column A or you will get the #REF! error also
Hi
Can anyone please help or this totally impossible in excel? I am trying to do a vlookup with a range of cells that contains "comments" in them and unsuccessful.
Thank you
@Lala
You cannot search within comments unless you use VBA
My tips are:
Pay attention to data types - no fly if mixing text and numbers. I run into this problem a lot with files downloaded from access that have a tendency to mix data types on me when it hits excel.
Pay attention to $ - If pulling from the same workbook, $ won't auto fill on your range and you will potentially miss hits.
Yeah, the data type mixing has bitten several folks I work with in the rear.
EG: I work at a company where marketing source codes are 10-alphanumeric. But, some codes are like "12345" while others are "123abc". When access or sql dumps to excel, the numerical ones convert to numbers while the text ones stay text.
So, what I do is create a reference column next to them in which I do a =TRIM([column]). Trim not only removes front/back spaces, it converts a value to text data type. This is useful, b/c sometimes sql db admins will store data with a fixed string length (eg: a column may get stored as char(50), which means it will have 50 chars no matter if it has to add extra spaces at the end to pad it out.) When you dump this to excel, the extra spaces remain at the end. So, the Trim command not only converts numbers to text, it removes padded spaces at the end. Very useful when working with sql dumps.
I have two sheets, in first sheet i have given a criteria of month (like jan, feb), then on another sheet i have month wise sheet like
jan feb mar
a 2 5 8
b 5 9 8
c 9 12 89
now i need in first sheet if i give criteria jan then answer is 2+5+9, or if i give feb then answer is 5+9+12 and like that, how to get that??
I am pretty well versed in VLOOKUP but I have a challenge I can't figure out. When I complete the VLOOKUP in one cell, it works fine. When I drag the formula down (using $ where necessary) the value from the first LOOKUP populates in the new cell. If I double click on the cell and hit 'enter' then the correct value is pulled in from the vlookup. Any suggestions why the formula isn't executing correctly until I hit enter?
@Nicole
It sounds like Calculation is set to Manual
Goto the Data Tab Calculation and set it to Automatic
Absolutely FANTASTIC!! Thank you so much. Slight variation on my version of Excel. I had to go to Formulas Tab then to Calculation sub-tab, Calculation Options, change setting to Automatic. Thank you thank you thank you. Saved me hours of more frustration!
[...] than maybe sorted, which it usually is anyway).Use COUNTIF or MATCH to speed up calculationAs many others have pointed out, VLOOKUP returns #N/A if the lookup value is not found. Instead of using a [...]
I have more than 2 columns in a table I'm so confused cuz the results i get is #N/A =(
I have a 2-sheet database. Sheet 2 has a list of Accronyms in column A and their description in column B. On sheet 1, column A is where you input your Acronym. In column B, the formula takes Acronym from column A, looks it up on sheet 2, and displays it on column B.
After some research, I found how to make custom text if there is not a match on the Acromyn. The question i have is, is that when there is no text in comumn A, sheet 1, column B, sheet 1 displays my custom text "ABBREVIATION NOT FOUND". I'm trying to write a forumla that leaves column B blank unitl there is an input in column A.
This is my current forulma:
=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(A4,Description!A:B,2,FALSE)),"ABBREVIATION NOT FOUND",(VLOOKUP(A4,Description!A:B,2,FALSE)))
Any help out there?
Thanks,
Jerome
Hi Jerome... Thanks for your question. Try this formula instead:
=IF(A4<>"", IFERROR(VLOOKUP(A4,Description!A:B,2,FALSE),”ABBREVIATION NOT FOUND”), "")
Works in XL 2007 or above. For older versions use this:
=IF(A4<>"", IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(A4,Description!A:B,2,FALSE)),”ABBREVIATION NOT FOUND”,(VLOOKUP(A4,Description!A:B,2,FALSE))), "")
Btw, to learn more about IFERROR see this: http://chandoo.org/wp/2011/03/11/iferror-formula/
I have 2 worksheet, the first one is like this:
A B C D
1 DOG 1 BROWN
1 DOG 2 WHITE
2 CAT 1 SMALL
2 CAT 2 MEDIUM
2 CAT 3 BIG
THE SECOND WORKSHEET IS LIKE THIS:
A B C D
ENTER# fORMULA 1 WITH VLOOK ENTER # FORMULA 2
(RETURN ANIMAL) RETURN TYPE
FOR EXAMPLE i NEED WORKS LIKE THIS:
2 CAT 2 MEDIUM
FIRST FORMULA IS EASY NOT PROBLEM. bUT FOR THE SECOND i DO NOT FIND HOW TO DO IT. PLEASE HELP.
This would be how I would handle your second formula, in your first worksheet, I would insert a column between C & D. In that column I would have a formula to concatenate the values in column A & C (example =concatenate(a2,c2)) which would result in:
A B C D E
1 DOG 1 11 BROWN
1 DOG 2 12 WHITE
2 CAT 1 21 SMALL
2 CAT 2 22 MEDIUM
2 CAT 3 23 BIG
Then in the second worksheet formula 2 would be:
=vlookup(concatenate($a2,$c2),AnimalType columns D&E,2,false)
Great Stuff Chandoo
In your 6th post you say use SUMIF instead of VLOOKUP as it runs faster.
What if you have a spread sheet with repeated data and you only want to pull one value back?
would it be best to use a simple VLOOKUP
or something like: IF(COUNTIF < 2, SUMIF, VLOOKUP)
I have set COUNTIF < 2 (not just = 1) to take advantage of the fact that if COUNTIF = 0 you won’t get an error
Now if only you could use the column header name instead of the column index number in the VLOOKUP function.
Scenario: I have a list/table in one spreadsheet that I use to lookup values in other spreadsheets. If I insert columns in my list/table, I have to go into the other spreadsheet(s) and increment the VLOOKUP formulas' column index number to capture the right column of values.
Example: if I inserted a column in Table1, my formula:
=VLOOKUP(A1,Table1,2,FALSE) would have to change to:
=VLOOKUP(A1,Table1,3,FALSE),
it would be so much better if you could code something like:
=VLOOKUP(A1,Table1,Table1[price],FALSE)
If my lookup result is numeric data I could use sumif as suggested and use the list/table references; is there a similar function I can use for alphanumeric data lookups that uses list/table references?
[…] Read more – 6 VLOOKUP tips […]
tip:
you can use dynamic column reference for your look up if you want to pull multiple column values from another sheet with the same row reference without having to rewrite the the formula, e.g.
range a1:d1 = "header", 2 , 3, 4
b2 = vlookup($a2, LookUpRange, b$2, 0)
c2 = vlookup($a2, LookUpRange, c$2, 0)
b3 = vlookup($a3, LookUpRange, b$2, 0)
the above will bring back the value two columns away from LookUpRange in b2, 3 for c2 and 4 for d2 for the same reference, a2. By freezing just the column for your lookup reference value and just the rows for your column reference, you can drag your forums both down and right while keeping all reference both constant and dynamic... as oxymoronic as that sounds.
my TIP, building on what Andy says above re using a dynamic refrence: if you use the column functon in the header row - should someone add extra columns to the source sheet your lookup will adapt and still return the right result.
With the below formula I am getting "too many arguments for this function. any help?
=IFERROR(VLOOKUP(RIGHT(M3,7),notes!A:A,1,FALSE),"Failure to process correctly",IFERROR(VLOOKUP(RIGHT(n,2),notes!A:A,1,FALSE),"Failure to process correctly"))
Chaz - IFERROR only requires 2 arguments, you have entered 3 (the vlookup, the error message, the 2nd IFERROR).
Change your formula to the following:
=IF(isERROR(VLOOKUP(RIGHT(M3,7),notes!A:A,1,FALSE)),”Failure to process correctly”,IFERROR(VLOOKUP(RIGHT(n,2),notes!A:A,1,FALSE),”Failure to process correctly”))
Ian
Hmm, I'm not sure my formula will return the required output.
This tests if there is an error in the 1st vlookup, then checks the 2nd, and only returns the error message if both vlookups are errors. Is that what you wanted to do?
=IF(isERROR(VLOOKUP(RIGHT(M3,7),notes!A:A,1,FALSE)),IFERROR(VLOOKUP(RIGHT(n,2),notes!A:A,1,FALSE),”Failure to process correctly”),VLOOKUP(RIGHT(M3,7),notes!A:A,1,FALSE))
I am trying to use a vlookup with a named range for the lookup array. This works fine. However now I would like to replace this named range with a cell reference (which obviously contains the name of the named range) but get a N/A error message. Is this really not possible?
vlookup ( A1, named range, 2, 0 ) . This works
vlookup ( A1, F1, 2, 0 ) . Where cell F1 contains the the text with named range. This does not work.
Any tips or thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you in advance
@Erik
Use: vlookup ( A1, Indirect(F1), 2, 0 )
Works like a charm. Thank you!
Some opinions on the pros and cons of using named ranges on http://www.excelvlookuphelp.com along with a few other hot tips
Hello,
Chandoo,
Can u explain me how to use vlookup formula in 2 sheets in one excel workbook.
Hi am Using Index match function to overcome the limitation of Vlookup. But I am failed to get the same result as i get in Vlookup. in vlookup as we can expand the Columns of Vlookup in one single shot. Like Vlookup($A4,A1:G9,3,0) but same Result i Not get in Index match Function. Please help
@Satish
I will suggest that your list is unsorted and it is possible that VLookup is returning a wrong answer
Can you post a question at the Chandoo.org Forums
http://chandoo.org/forum/
Post a sample file and someone will review
I want to upload a Sample file Contain my Question. but i can't see and upload file button on the page. Please Tell how to upload the File
@Satish
You can't upload a file here
But you can on the Forums
Goto:
http://chandoo.org/forum/
Select a Forum
Start a New Thread
Upload a File, is at the Bottom next to the Post Button
Refer: http://chandoo.org/forum/threads/posting-a-sample-workbook.451/#post-73705
thanxx... Soon i will Upload It.
Dear Excel super-users,
Sourcing data from different sheets.
I'd like to specify in the vlookup formula which sheet to source data from.
This source sheet will change depending of the name of the person selected in a specific cell C1 on the sheet where the vlookup formula is being run from.
I'd be grateful for any tips to achieve this.
Regards,
Sean
dear sir /madam
please proved me lookup formula
and exp--------- insert picture formula attched excel sheet
Us the Column formula in place of the 3rd argument will save you time when you want to bring in all data columns!