To VLOOKUP or not to VLOOKUP???

[alivein2025]

Should I use INDEX-MATCH instead of VLOOKUP?

 

[Peter Bartholomew]

For me, VLOOKUP is an obsolete function that I haven't used for the past 10 years. I moved first to INDEX/MATCH and then in 2018 to XLOOKUP (very rarely now, INDEX/XMATCH/XMATCH or even array LOOKUP). That said, I do not think it is a question of 'should'. If VLOOKUP meets your needs and you are familiar with its foibles, sobeit.

 

[ETAF]

no, whatever function works for you
I liked index/match as you did not need to work out the column with numbers and also (although possible in vlookup) you could return values to the left of the lookup column

I still tend to use index.match even now even though had 365 and xlookup for some time

your call

 

[alivein2025]

For me, VLOOKUP is an obsolete function that I haven't used for the past 10 years. I moved first to INDEX/MATCH and then in 2018 to XLOOKUP (very rarely now, INDEX/XMATCH/XMATCH or even array LOOKUP). That said, I do not think it is a question of 'should'. If VLOOKUP meets your needs and you are familiar with its foibles, sobeit.

Thank you! Very helpful.

 

[alivein2025]

no, whatever function works for you
I liked index/match as you did not need to work out the column with numbers and also (although possible in vlookup) you could return values to the left of the lookup column

I still tend to use index.match even now even though had 365 and xlookup for some time

your call

Thank you so much!

 

[pecoflyer]

You can also quite easily use Power Query to perform lookups

 

[shili12]

i prefer FILTER as best option.