In simple words, we have to find the range that has the lookup value.
Now, the problem is similar to between formula trick we discussed a few days back, yet very different.
We all know that,
- XLOOKUP formula looks up a value in a table and returns the corresponding value in next column
- MATCH formula looks up a value and tells the position of it in a list
We can use XMATCH:
Since we just want to know which row will contain the value, we can use XMATCH as shown below.
=XMATCH(1, (B6:B15<=C3)*(C6:C15>=C3))
Ok, go ahead, I will give you a minute to soak in the awesomeness of that formula.
Are you back?, well, lets explore what this formula does.
How this works:
- C3 contains our lookup value
- B6:B15 has the lower boundary
- C6:C15 has the higher boundary
- The (B6:B15<=C3)*(C6:C15>=C3) returns a bunch of 1s or 0s. It will be 1 whenever C3 is between column B&C values and 0 otherwise.
- XMATCH will match the first 1, ie the first row that matches the range.
Or even the SUMPRODUCT
Then I thought, “may be SUMPRODUCT formula would work for situations like these?!?”
After playing for a while, I got the perfect formula for this.
- Assuming the value to be looked up is in cell
C3 - The start and end values are in
B6:B15andC6:C15respectively,
We write,
=SUMPRODUCT((B6:B15<=C3)*(C6:C15>=C3),ROW(B6:B15))-5
There are 3 portions in that formula,
(B6:B15<=C3)*(C6:C15>=C3)part: This is checking the range B6:B15 and C6:C15 to find that one set of start and end values that would contain the value in C3. The output would be a bunch of 0s with probably a single 1ROW(B6:B15)part: This just gives running numbers from 6 to 15. When you SUMPRODUCT this with above you get a single number corresponding the row in which the match occurred-5part: We reduce the output value by 5 since our value began in row 6, not row 1.
Use this to lookup date ranges too:
As you can guess, you can easily use the above SUMPRODUCT formula to lookup matching date ranges too a la vlookup for date ranges.
Download Range Lookup Example Workbook:
In the download workbook, you can find both examples (values and dates). Go ahead and download it. Play with it to understand range lookup formula better.
Click here to download the sample workbook.
Do you face range lookup problem?
Often, when working on project planning, I end up checking where a date falls between given set of start and end dates. Earlier, I used helper columns to solve such a problem. But the XMATCH (or SUMPRODUCT) solution above is much more elegant and scalable. Plus it is much more fun to write.
What about you?
Do you face range lookup problem often? How do you solve it? Share your techniques and tips using comments. Thank you 🙂
23 Responses to “Learn Top 10 Excel Features”
What it looks like if excel without formula?? 🙂
It would be not excel it would just be fancy tables in which you could just use power point. (Chandoo) would Access be an alternative?
Awesome piece of work!!!
Great article.
Chandoo - my biggest interest in the article was the awesome word-graphic at the top - where did you go to get it done into a shape?
@Rich.. thank you. I used http://www.tagxedo.com/ to generate this word cloud. I took all the comments in the original post, pasted them in tagxedo website and set up the shape etc.
Awesome Chandoo.. You need always needs coffee to start up with. BTW , how did u created the Heart Shaped picture filled with High Repetitive text in it .. Please put it on your Next blog ...
Chandoo, good article. I’ve added a link to it from Connexion – our collection of the most useful and interesting spreadsheet-related articles from the web. See http://www.i-nth.com/resources/connexion
Hi,
Just one small question. Where the hell have been I in the past for not discovering this website sooner?
I've lost a job interview recently where even though I had the subject knowledge, I was not upto their mark in Excel.
Thank you for all the free tips, guidance and for creating this forum environment.
[PS: I've just been through the site for the 1st time, and have signed up for the newsletter. You can expect pretty stupid questions from me soon]
Hy Chandoo, you always inspire me with to explore something new in excel. This data structure table is only for excel 2007 or compatible to 2010. I recently installed latest excel version 2013 in my System and experience problems regarding operating according to previous one. I'm waiting your article relates to that excel version.
Thanks
Awesome article Mr. Chandoo and that is a awesome heart shaped pic you created. Great tips as well.
[...] Learn Top 10 Excel Features | Chandoo.org – Learn Microsoft Excel Online. [...]
Chandoo is awesome..
Thanks, i got better, And i always get 90.50 in my grade card but now i get 96.50 i improved because of the tutorials you gave, Thank You Very Much Chandoo Guy.
Hi chandoo, i am intersted in seeing the video or step by step done procedure of analysing the comments and presenting in the data percentage steps. I think this one would be first step in finding out how generally happens data calculation. Thank you.
As well i would like to know how to get that black shape art of your face which i see in chandoo. I am interested in making it for me.
Nice to see the features considered by Excel users to be most useful. It might be a good idea to also analyze StackOverflow Excel questions to see what keywords appear most often.
Here are my top 10 Excel Features (for advanced users):
http://www.analystcave.com/excel-10-top-excel-features/
Thanks a ton for this it totally helped with my homework ????
Very good effort
Thank you for this. Lots of learning in the links you've provided for this septuagenarian.
Pls send me new post
Dude, your humor ? ?
Loved your work.
Hello Sir,
I am Sanjeev Khakre and i from Indore City, India , I am your big follower and i have watch your videos and learnt a lots of excel trick or function and many more . thanks so much for all of your excellent support.
Your excel knowledge is real awesome.
Thanks
Sanjeev
Your work is excellent but pls willing to know more details about the features of microsoft excel
Chandoo Would Access be a better alternative than VB?