We all know that VLOOKUP (and its cousins MATCH, HLOOKUP and LOOKUP) are great for finding information you want. But they are helpless when you want to do a case-sensitive lookup.
So how do we write case sensitive VLOOKUP formulas?
Simple. We can use EXACT formula.
What exactly is the EXACT formula?
EXACT formula checks if 2 cells have exactly the same value. And it is very SenSITive.
For example, =EXACT("this","THIS") will be false , where as =”this”=”THIS” will be true.
Using EXACT formula to do case sensitive lookups
Let’s say the value you are looking up is in cell F4, the lookup range is B5:C11 (column B has lookup value and column C has value you want).
You can use EXACT formula along with INDEX + MATCH or SUMPRODUCT to do case sensitive lookup. Let’s look at each of these variations:
Using EXACT & INDEX + MATCH formulas to do case sensitive lookups:
Formula: {=INDEX($C$5:$C$11,MATCH(TRUE,EXACT($F$4,$B$5:$B$11),0))}
How it works?
Let’s go from inside out.
EXACT(F4, B5:B11) portion: This will return an array of TRUE & FALSE values. Something like this:
{FALSE;FALSE;TRUE;FALSE;FALSE;FALSE;FALSE}
MATCH(TRUE, EXACT(...), 0) portion: Now we look for TRUE in all the values EXACT has returned. This will be 3 (since 3rd value in the array is true).
INDEX(C5:C11, MATCH(...)) portion: This will simply return the 3rd value in the column C, ie an exact match.
{INDEX(...)}: Because this is an array formula, you must press CTRL+Shift+Enter after typing it. The {} indicates this.
Related: Learn about INDEX+MATCH combination.
Using EXACT + SUMPRODUCT formula:
If the lookup result is a number (or date) and there is only matching value, you can use SUMPRODUCT to do case sensitive lookups.
Related: Introduction Excel SUMPRODUCT formula.
Formula:=SUMPRODUCT(EXACT($F$4,$B$5:$B$11) * ($C$5:$C$11))
How it works?
The EXACT(F4, B5:B11) portion returns a bunch of TRUE & FALSE values.
When you multiply these TRUE & FALSE values with column C (which contains numbers), the end result will be the value you are looking for.
This is possible because in Excel, TRUE is 1 and FALSE is 0. So when you multiply a list of logical values (true / false) with a list of numbers, everything that corresponds to false becomes 0.
So we get,
{0;0;30;0;0;0;0}
SUMPRODUCT simply adds up these numbers and returns 30 as result.
Note: This formula won’t work if you have text values in column C or more than one TRUE in EXACT result (ie multiple values match the lookup criteria).
For advanced users: SUMPRODUCT – Advanced scenarios
Download case sensitive lookup – example workbook
Please click here to download case sensitive lookup example workbook. Examine the formulas to learn more about this technique.
More ways to lookup:
- 2 Way lookups – lookup in top row & left column and find matching value.
- Wild lookups – lookup a value that starts with Som & ends with ne.
- Range lookup – find a value inside the lower & upper boundary
- Last lookup – find the last value in a list of multiple matches.
- Multi-condition lookups – lookup based on multiple conditions
- Take our VLOOKUP Quiz – how well do you know VLOOKUP?
Get The VLOOKUP Book: If you are always looking for help about VLOOKUP, look no further. Get my book, it’s going to make you awesome in VLOOKUP, INDEX+MATCH, multi-condition lookups, 2 way lookups and more. Click here to order your copy.
How do you write case sensitive lookups?
Let me be honest. I haven’t had a single case sensitive lookup scenario in last year. But email from a reader prompted me to research this problem.
What about you? Do you often deal with case-sensitive data? How do you write case sensitive lookups? Please share your tips & formulas in comments section.
17 Responses to “Custom Number Formats – Colors”
You are right, Chandoo. I was playing with the colour numbers last week and some of them don't appear different from each other. Others are totally different from yours.
@Duncan
Each version of Excel, post 2003, renders colors slightly differently
Different language versions may also have different default color palettes
Hello in french
excel 2010
colo1 = couleur1 = black
[couleur1]; [couleur2]; etc..
@Hui, thank you very much again for this great post.
However - under Excel 2007, Hungarian version your solution does not work with color names. I've tried both English and Hungarian names, but drops an error message "not valid formats"
Do you have any idea how to solve this issue?
thanks in advance
@Andras
Without a Hungarian version of Excel 2003 I don't think I can assist
Have you tried using the colour numbers? I couldn't get the names to work (despite using an english version of excel). but it did work with the numbers though. I left out the "u" and was easily able to produce burgundy using [color9]
Here a possible solution: find an English version of Excel, write there the formats using English names, then open the file in the Hungarian version and see the translation.
In Excel 2007 I can't get the colour names to work e.g Sea Green but the numbers do e.g color3 - colour3 does not work so I must bow to the country that has stolen my language (ha ha!)
Hey chandoo, nice Tip!
Wouldn't be easier just apply some conditional formatting for negative numbers and another for positive numbers? Or there's some cases that you can't do that?
Unfortunately the TEXT function doesn't color the cell as number formatting does.
Hi Hui,
Great post Sir, love the new way of formatting with color numbers.
I am using 2007, and it leads me to the last color number 56.
Thanks Hui.
[…] explains how to set up custom number formats with a wide array of […]
Thanks Hui - works a treat!
Thank you, very helpful.
Trying to figure out if it is possible to apply color only to a part of the cell?
E.g. I have a value formatted as Accounting with a currency symbol.
Those I find somewhat distracting though necessary. If I could make them less obtrusive by coloring them gray while the number would stay black, that would be great. Tried tinkering with the format string, but didn't get the desired result. Single color for complete cell value works, but coloring just part of it could not be achieved. Maybe somebody managed that?
Exactly what I was looking for - thank you!
colour in the Australian doesn't work - we have to go American and no problem.
I always thought is was 56 colours notice you have 57. Cool.
thanks
Analir Pisani
Customised Microsoft Office Training Specialist
Sydney - Australia
http://www.azsolutions.com.au
Thank You!