Time for some good, old fashioned VLOOKUP love. Let’s say you are writing VLOOKUP()s to get data from an unusually fat table, ie one with heaps of columns. You want to get to lookup ID in first column and get thingamajig in what is that column number. Well, better get counting from 1 and after 19 seconds and lots of squinting you arrive at column number 53 – which has thingamajig.
If this sounds like your VLOOKUP routine, check out these three amazingly simple tips to save some time and effort with your lookups.
#1 Switch to R1C1 view
This is a quick and easy fix. Head to File > Options > Formulas and enable R1C1 reference style. This will tell you what each column is in number format. Problem solved.
Of course, this also means all your formula references will be turned in to R1C1 style. But once you disable the R1C1 reference style in Formula Options, your VLOOKUP will be back to A1 style.
#2 Use Tables
While the R1C1 view can quickly tell you what each column is in numbers, it won’t work if your data starts from 17th column or something like that. A better option is to turn your raw data in to tabular format using Insert > Table. Give this table a name from Design ribbon, like mydata. This way, you can use simpler lookup formulas.
[Related resources: VLOOKUP with Tables is awesome | Introduction to Excel Structural Referencing for table formulas]
Original VLOOKUP: =VLOOKUP(something, data!$A$2:$BK$123, 53,false)
VLOOKUP using tables: =VLOOKUP(something, mydata, 53,false)
But we still have to figure out the column for thingamajig. Simple, we use MATCH() formula inside VLOOKUP, like this:
VLOOKUP using tables & MATCH(): =VLOOKUP(something, mydata, MATCH("thingamajig", mydata[#Headers], 0), false)
That is right, you can access table headers using the #Headers keyword and get position of any header.
#3 Use INDEX + MATCH
This will make the problem altogether irrelevant. Simply use INDEX and MATCH formulas to get the result you need, like this:
=INDEX(mydata[thingamajig], MATCH($C$3,mydata[ID],0))
Now, you don’t care if thingamajig is 53rd column or 217th column and if ID is at the start or somewhere else. It works all the same.
For more about using INDEX in your formulas, check out this beautiful tutorial.
Here is a summary of all formula techniques
| Normal Lookup [help] | |
| Formula | =VLOOKUP(something,'really fat data'!$A$2:$BK$123,53,FALSE) |
| Comments | You need to know which column (53) has the data you need. Either count manually or enable R1C1 style to quickly to know. |
| Using Tables [help] | |
| Formula | =VLOOKUP(something,mydata,53,FALSE) |
| Comments | Create a table for your source data (using CTRL+T) and give it a name. Use the name in your formulas. You still need to know column number. |
| Using Tables + MATCH() | |
| Formula | =VLOOKUP(something,mydata, MATCH("thingamajig",mydata[#Headers],0),FALSE) |
| Comments | Use MATCH() to find out which column header has the value you want to lookup. |
| Using INDEX + MATCH [help] | |
| Formula | =INDEX(mydata[thingamajig], MATCH($C$3,mydata[ID],0)) |
| Comments | Now, you don’t even need to know where everything is. Just lookup the value in ID column and get corresponding value from thingamajig column. Done 🙂 |
Download Example Workbook
Click here to download workbook with all vlookup techniques discussed in this page. Play with formulas to learn more.
Get your VLOOKUP on…
Check out our complete guide to VLOOKUP and for more lookup pizzazz get my VLOOKUP book.
How do you deal with fat tables?
I use tables and INDEX+MATCH whenever my data is more than a few columns or can change often.
What about you? How do you deal with several columns situation? Please post your tips in the comments section.
13 Responses to “Using pivot tables to find out non performing customers”
To avoid the helper column and the macro, I would transpose the data into the format shown above (Name, Year, Sales). Now I can show more than one year, I can summarize - I can do many more things with it. ASAP Utilities (http://www.asap-utilities.com) has a new experimental feature that can easily transpose the table into the correct format. Much easier in my opinion.
David
Of course with alternative data structure, we can easily setup a slicer based solution so that everything works like clockwork with even less work.
David, I was just about to post the same!
In Contextures site, I remember there's a post on how to do that. Clearly, the way data is layed out on the very beginning is critical to get the best results, and even you may thinkg the original layout is the best way, it is clearly not. And that kind of mistakes are the ones I love ! because it teaches and trains you to avoid them, and how to think on the data structure the next time.
Eventually, you get to that place when you "see" the structure on the moment the client tells you the request, and then, you realized you had an ephiphany, that glorious moment when data is no longer a mistery to you!!!
Rgds,
Chandoo,
If the goal is to see the list of customers who have not business from yearX, I would change the helper column formula to :
=IF(selYear="all",sum(C4:M4),sum(offset(C4:M4,,selyear-2002,1,columns(C4:M4)-selyear+2002)))This formula will sum the sales from Selected Year to 2012.
JMarc
If you are already using a helper column and the combox box runs a macro after it changes, why not just adjust the macro and filter the source data?
Regards
I gotta say, it seems like you are giving 10 answers to 10 questions when your client REALLY wants to know is: "What is the last year "this" customer row had a non-zero Sales QTY?... You're missing the forest for the trees...
Change the helper column to:
=IFERROR(INDEX(tblSales[[#Headers],[Customer name]:[Sales 2012]],0,MATCH(9.99999999999999E+307,tblSales[[#This Row],[Customer name]:[Sales 2012]],1)),"NO SALES")
And yes, since I'm matching off of them for value, I would change the headers to straight "2002" instead of "Sales 2002" but you sort the table on the helper column and then and there you can answer all of your questions.
Hi thanks for this. Just can't figure out how you get the combo box to control the pivot table. Can you please advise?
Cheers
@Kevin.. You are welcome. To insert a combo box, go to Developer ribbon > Insert > form controls > combo box.
For more on various form controls and how to use them, please read this: http://chandoo.org/wp/2011/03/30/form-controls/
Thanks Chandoo. But I know how to insert a combobox, I was more referring to how does in control the year in the pivot table? Or is this obvious? I note that if I select the Selected Year from the PivotTable Field List it says "the field has no itens" whereas this would normally allow you to change the year??
Thanks again
worked it out thanks...
when =data!Q2 changes it changes the value in column N:N and then when you do a refreshall the pivottable vlaues get updated
Still not sure why PivotTable Field List says “the field has no itens"?? I created my own pivot table and could not repeat that.
Hi, I put the sales data in range(F5:P19) and added a column D with the title 'Last sales in year'. After that, in column D for each customer, the simple formula
=2000+MATCH(1000000,E5:P5)
will provide the last year in which that particular customer had any sales, which can than easily be managed by autofilter.
Somewhat longer but perhaps a bit more solid (with the column titles in row 4):
=RIGHT(INDEX($F$4:$P$19,1,MATCH(1000000,F5:P5)),4)
[…] Finding non-performing customers using Pivot Tables […]