SubscribeHow to Look up Based on Multiple Conditions
Situation
Not always we want to lookup values based on one search parameter. For eg. Imagine you have data like below and you want to find how much sales Joseph made in January 2007 in North region for product “Fast car”?
Data:
Solution
Simple, use your index finger to scan the list and find the match 
Of course, that wouldn’t be scalable. Plus, you may want to put your index finger to better use, like typing . So, lets come up with some formulas that do this for us.
You can extract items from a table that match multiple criteria in multiple ways. See the examples to understand the techniques:
| Using SUMIFS Formula [help] | |
| Formula | =SUMIFS(lstSales, lstSalesman,valSalesman, lstMonths,valMonth, lstRegion,valRegion, lstProduct,valProduct) |
| Result | 1592 |
| Using SUMPRODUCT Formula [help] | |
| Formula | =SUMPRODUCT(lstSales,(lstSalesman=valSalesman)*(lstMonths=valMonth)*(lstRegion=valRegion)* (lstProduct=valProduct)) |
| Result | 1592 |
| Using INDEX & Match Formulas (Array Formula) [help] | |
| Formula | {=INDEX(lstSales,MATCH(valSalesman&valMonth&valRegion&valProduct, lstSalesman&lstMonths&lstRegion&lstProduct,0))} |
| Result | 1592 |
| Using VLOOKUP Formula [help] | |
| Formula | =VLOOKUP(valMonth&valSalesman&valRegion&valProduct,tblData2,7,FALSE) |
| Result | 1592 |
| Conditions: | A helper column that concatenates month, salesman, region & product in the left most column of tblData2 |
| Using SUM (Array Formula) [help] | |
| Formula | {=SUM(lstSales*(lstSalesman=valSalesman)*(lstMonths=valMonth)* (lstRegion=valRegion)*(lstProduct=valProduct))} |
| Result | 1592 |
Sample File
Download Example File – Looking up Based on More than One Value
Go ahead and download the file. It also has some homework for you to practice these formula tricks.
Also checkout the examples Vinod has prepared.
Special Thanks to
Rohit1409, dan l, John, Godzilla, Vinod
Similar Tips
- Excel SUMIFS Formula – What is it, how to use it & examples
- Excel SUMPRODUCT Formula – What is it, how to use it & examples
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How to Lookup Values to Left? | 6 Tips for Writing Better VLOOKUPs |  |
At Chandoo.org, I have one goal, "to make you awesome in excel and charting". This blog is started in 2007 and today has 450+ articles and tutorials on using excel, making better charts. 
36 Responses to “How to Look up Based on Multiple Conditions”
=Index(RngToPick,Match(1,Conditions,0)) non array entered
Where Conditions is defined as For eg Conditions = ($a$1:$a$10=d1)*($b$1:$b$10=e1)
Having more than one match for the search parameter would render the VLOOKUP Formula and the INDEX & MATCH Formulas with a single total and therefore the wrong answer. The SUMIFS, SUMPRODUCT, and SUM array formulas would give the correct answer should there be more than one match.
Fantastic worksheet, by the way. Loved all the formulas.
It’s about time you stopped ignoring the DSUM function, Chandoo.
=DSUM(Database,”Net Sales”,criteria)
where:
* ‘Database’ is the named range $B$4:$H$1083 (i.e. all your records, including the column headers)
* “Net Sales” is simply the name of the column you are interested in adding up (and you could also use ’6′, which would tell the column to choose the 6th column from the edge of your database range)
* ‘criteria’ is a range of 8 cells that list each column you will be filtering on in the first row, and the things you are looking for in each column in the second row, i.e.:
Salesman Month Region Product
Joseph Jan-07 North FastCar
I’ve uploaded an amended spreadsheet to http://cid-f380a394764ef31f.office.live.com/view.aspx/.Public/vlookup-on-multiple-conditions%20-%20DSUM.xls if anyone wants to play around with DSUM.
Also check out http://www.techonthenet.com/excel/formulas/dsum.php for more examples of DSUM
can you also help me with finding the minimum of values based on multiple conditions.
@Praveen
Can you be a bit more specific like what conditions and what type of data and even ranges if you have them?
Hi Hui,
My requirement is to find a least cost option among various combinations for port transport.
My data table would have the name of source port, name of destination from port, type of vessel to be handled, cost of transportation (port+ inland and others).
I need to find the least cost for a specific destination for a specific vessel among various ports.
You can explain it using the data provided above in your example, instead of a specific output i need a min among the selection. Lets say lowest sales by joseph for fast car in your example.
I was able to get the solutions after burning some brain cells by applying pivot table. Is there any specific way to do this with cell formula.
regards
praveen
@Praveen.. you can use MIN() formula to do this:
For eg. Assuming A1:A100 has sales person name, B1:B100 has product and C1:C100 as sales and you want to find out what is the min. sales for John for the product ABC,
=MIN(IF((A1:A100=”john”)*(B1:B100=”abc”)=0,”",C1:C100))
You must enter this as an array formula – ie press CTRL+SHIFT+Enter when you finish typing to get the result.
Chandoo,
In the above scenario, for getting the Max sales, it was possible to do so without the use of an array function (as below). Wondering if it is also possible to get the min sales without the use of an array …
=MAX(INDEX(((A1:A100=”john”)*(B1:B100=”abc”)=1)*C1:C100,0))
Thanks,
Farhad
Hey praveen,
Check the Dsum formula given by jeff weir above…
Similarly, you can use Dmin formula to get Minimum value as per mutiple criterias
Database Functions -> Dsum,Dmax, Dmin, Davg etc r very easy n Powerfull without any Complex nested formulas.
fyi – Hit F1 in Excel & search Database Functions – You’ll get entire list with syntax n example
@chandoo…that’s funny, I thought I commented on this, but my comment didn’t show. Can you check your spam filter?
hi chandoo,
works wonderfully. I was not able to ignore the irrelevant values in my minimum function. “” this has done the trick.
What exactly does “” do in a array function.
regards
@Jeff.. if you are referring to the DSUM comment, it is above. Else, I got nothing. Can you repost?
@Praveen… “” is nothing but an empty string. This forces to MIN to take the minimum value from the list. Just examine the formula to understand how it works.
After the DSUM comment I thought I answered Praveen’s question with 4 different examples. But never mind, I see you’ve helped Praveen out…good man!
I have noticed that you always enter “false” at the end of VLOOKUP formulas to get an exact match. Did you know you can save yourself some typing by entering zero “0″ instead of “false” (w/o the quotes) and “1″ for true? The fewer keystrokes needed the better, I always say.
Hi Chandoo,
Answer for the second question (for homework) can be = =SUM((lstSalesman=K35)*(lstRegion=M35)*((MONTH(lstMonths)={1,2,3}*(YEAR(lstMonths)=2008))*(lstSales))).
Please explain the “val” in the formulas above. Or can you give the formulas with column and rows cell. eg. (Jan-07, Joseph, north, Fastcar, 8 1592, 563) = (a1, b2, c3, d4, e5, f6, g7)
Please also explain the prefix “1st”.
Thanks
Hi, i have problem with vlookup.
When I use vlookup formula I recived always same result (21). I need more results (21,25,etc).
Ascending or descending of data is not possible (this is small part of very big table)
Can you help me?
Thanks, Igor
Sample:
1 11
2 21
3 31
4 41
5 51 look for 2
1 12
2 25 result 21 21
2 23 21 25
3 32 21 23
4 42 21 20
5 52 21 25
1 13
2 20 wrong correct
3 33
4 43
5 53
1 14
2 25
3 34
4 44
5 54
hi chandoo,
i learn lot from chandoo.org, you a doing a very good job by sharing this to us.
thanks a lot !
Hi, my questions is this- how can I filter through a list that has multiple heads. I.e. I have a year 1 through 3, and then below it I have 6 scenarios, which are the same for each year.
Then, on the vertical axis of my table I have 4 industries with 9 different ratings.
I sure could use your help, if there is a function that would be able to help me with this. Thanks so much!
PS currently I am working through the sumproduct variant
Here is a sample of what the data looks like, and I would like to create a formula that can extract Nov Base, 4, Baa Rating, which would result 0.64% in this example.
Thanks so much again
Nov Base Nov Base Nov Base Feb Base Feb Base Feb Ba 4 8 12 4 8 12
Aaa 0.24% 0.2% 0.1% 0.020% 0.70% 0.90%
Aa 0.31% 0.10% 0.96% 0.32% 0.05% 0.60%
A 0.04% 0.32% 0.77% 0.32% 0.48% 0.84%
Baa 0.64% 0.21% 0.88% 0.11% 0.25% 0.91%
Ba 0.86% 0.81% 1.78% 0.80% 1.45% 1.33%
B 1.02% 2.64% 2.70% 2.70% 3.77% 3.57%
Caa 0.70% 1.1% 5.12% 9.11% 4.87% 6.20%
Ca-C 0.64% 1.63% 0.92% 6.92% 6.05% 2.50%
sorry, the data didnt come out right
@mrrr2,
I think the best option would be to upload your workbook on Skydrive or Google Docs for us to view and help.
~VijaySharma
Realized that my query embedded in a reply to an earlier comment may have been lost in the trail. Thus, putting in this comment to refer my earlier query dated april 9 above in continuation to a solution proposed by chandoo above. I was trying to find a non-array solution to the min-sales of a salesman … While max-sales was possible, min-sales will always return 0 (false) if there are more than 1 salesmen. Any work-around for this?
Is it possible to look for multiple values that appear in rows and then paste it on a separate column?
EG. I wanted to extract the values that corresponds to either Employee1, Employee2 or Employee3 and find them in rows B2 to G2? How should I go about it?
[...] http://chandoo.org/wp/2010/11/02/multi-condition-lookup/ [...]
Very helpful formulas:). Thank you so much for all the great articles and I just think Chandoo is the best as everything is explained so easy and understandable for all even not excelers
.
Hi,
I must thickheaded because I think you explain this but I can’t figure it out.
I have two separate reports, and need to filter the larger report based on two criteria in the second.
My thought process is,
If Order Number is in List & SKU is in List return X.
How do I do this? I would think Index but cant get my head around it.
THanks.
Brian: check out the DSUM function, or the ADVANCED FILTER functionality. You need to set up a criteria range in your worksheet, which can be a bit confusing the first time you do it, but once you’ve mastered that you’ll have a very important skill in your Excel toolkit.
Give these a google, and see what floats to the top.
[...] multiple criteria. Back when we did that lookup week, we had a round up of various techniques for doing mulch-criteria lookups (index+match, sumproduct, sumifs etc.). Doug at YourSumBuddy discusses more about 2 important [...]
Sir u r really genius waht a way to present the solution with multiple options
Is there any way to do this 3 condition lookup, but for values that are an approximate match?
For example, I have a table very similar to the example, but I want to lookup two values to the exact match, and 1 value to an approximate ( <= ) match.
Any ideas/help?
Hi Chandoo,
I love your site, you do an excellent job! Thank you!
In the example above, you give the formula:
=VLOOKUP(valMonth&valSalesman&valRegion&valProduct,tblData2,7,FALSE)How do I get thevalMonth&valSalesman&valRegion&valProduct portion? I can't seem to get that part into my vlookup.Thanks!
Hi Chandoo:
Wow! I have seen some awesome stuff on your site.
Request some help with an issue I have.
As an example, say, I have 3 columns (Named CityName, 2Days & 3Days) and 4 rows of data below it showing count of 2 & 3 day travel points to each city. I would like to be able to show the value (2Days or 3Days) depending on the MAX of counts in the range for every row. The MAX for first city may be under 2Days and the second city may be under 3Days. Tried LOOKUPS, INDEX & MATCH etc. but the issue is they all give the value of the intersection but I need the top row value/heading for every MAX value in a row.
Thanks.
Anil
What if I want to look from a different file to find the same row, and copy extra values I have in other file but not in the other?
Dear Mynda,
I am working on 2 sheets within the same excel sheet. In master sheet there are 3 columns A, B, C. In the Child sheet, A and B are calculated based on certain parameters. Now, I need to map the value of A & B from the child sheet and get the Value of C from the Master sheet. Please guide me to do the same.
For example A=5,00,000 and B=50% in child sheet. In master sheet, I need to match Value of A and B together and get the value of C, which is in the master sheet to my child sheet.
AND
I need to round up 2 digits number in the nearest 10 multiples and 3 digits number to the nearest 3 digits multiple. How is it possible within the same formulae.
For example if the value is 76, it should come 80 and if the value is 176, it should come 200. It needs to be done within the same formulae.
Thank you in advance and please suggest me at the earliest. It is urgent