In this article, learn all about the XLOOKUP Excel function, it’s syntax, parameters and how to use it with real-world xlookup examples.
What is XLOOKUP?
Using XLOOKUP, we can search for an item in a list using the lookup value and return a matching item. For example, you can lookup for salesperson “Jackie” and return their sales amount from the data below using the XLOOKUP function, as depicted above.
It is the newest member of Excel’s lookup function family. You may already know the other members of this group – VLOOKUP, LOOKUP, HLOOKUP, INDEX+MATCH.
How to use XLOOKUP – step by step instructions
Let’s say you have data for salespeople like above and you want to find the Net Sales for “Jackie”. Follow below steps to create the XLOOKUP function in Excel.
- Write =XLOOKUP( in a cell
- For the lookup_value, Type the name of the salesperson in double quotes (ex: “Jackie”)
- Tip: If you have the name of the person in a cell (like G4), you can point to the cell instead of typing the name
- Now for the lookup_array, select the names column of your data.
- and for the return_array, select the net sales column of your data.
- Close the brackets and hit enter.
- Congratulations, you’ve just created your first XLOOKUP formula in Excel.
Here is how the formula and result look in my data:
What if the lookup value is not in the lookup array?
One of the most common scenarios of lookups in Excel is not finding the value you are looking for. Imagine, you are looking for the salesperson “Chandoo”, but he doesn’t exist in the dataset. In this case, XLOOKUP will return #N/A error.
But we can use the 4th parameter of XLOOKUP – if_not_found to set an optional value to display when there is an error.
Here is an example formula with that:
=XLOOKUP("Chandoo", B4:B21, D4:D21, "Not found")How to lookup in the middle with XLOOKUP (INDEX MATCH replacement)?
Let’s say you want to lookup the sales amount of $726 and return the name of the person (in this case, Jessy). Previously, you needed to use the INDEX+MATCH combination for this. But XLOOKUP let’s us specify any range or column for lookup_array portion. so, no more INDEX+MATCH… Yay!
To perform the “net sales” lookup and return the name of the person, we can use the below formula:
=XLOOKUP(G4, G4:G21, G4:G21, "Not found")The above XLOOKUP example assumes that G4 contains the net sales value you want to lookup.
How to lookup higher than / lower than using XLOOKUP? (approximate match)
Say, you want to find out the closest person with the net sales of $1300. In this case, we don’t have anyone with that value in the data. You can still use XLOOKUP to get the approximate matching value, either next higher or lower in the data.
For this we can use the 5th parameter of the XLOOKUP function – match mode.
There are 4 match modes in XLOOKUP.
- 0 or Exact match. This is the default value for XLOOKUP.
- 1 or next larger match. This looks up for the exact or next highest value in the lookup array.
- -1 or next smaller match. This looks up for the exact or next lowest value in the lookup array.
- 2 or wildcard match. This looks up based on a pattern you have mentioned in the lookup value. More on this further down in the article.
To get the next highest matching value:
=XLOOKUP(G4,D4:D21,B4:B21,,1)
Note: 1 refers to next higher value for match mode.The above formula returns “Jonathan” in the sample data, as he has the next highest amount – $1316.
To get the next lowest matching value:
=XLOOKUP(G4,D4:D21,B4:B21,,-1)
Note: 11 refers to next lower value for match mode.This formula returns “John” as he has the next lower value – $1088.
Getting Partial Matches with XLOOKUP (Wildcard / Pattern Matching)
XLOOKUP also allows for a powerful and elegant pattern matching in your data. Let’s say you want to find the net sales for the person whose name begins with the letters Jam. In this case, we can use the match mode 2 (wild card) along with the wildcard operators * (asterisk) and ? (question mark) to create our XLOOKUP.
To find the net sales of the person whose name begins with Jam,
- Use the formula =XLOOKUP(H4&”*”,B4:B21,D4:D21,”No such person”,2)
- Here H4 contains the first few letters of the name, i.e. Jam
- The lookup value is H4 & “*”. This tells XLOOKUP that we want the name to begin with the value of H4 (Jam) and then there can be any number of characters.
- Rest of the XLOOKUP parameters are as per usual.
- Don’t forget the match mode operator as 2. We need this for Wild card – pattern matching.
Refer to above illustration for more on the pattern matching xlookup.
Additional Pattern Matching Tricks with XLOOKUP
Refer to below handy table for some extra tips on using the partial matching feature of XLOOKUP.
| Situation | Formula | Explanation | Sample Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name ends with ved | =XLOOKUP(“*ved”, B4:B21,D4:D21,”No such person”,2) | To find a word ending with, we use * (asterisk) at the beginning of the pattern | Javed, $2277 |
| Name contains ack | =XLOOKUP(“*ack*”, B4:B21,D4:D21,”No such person”,2) | We can use two * symbols – one at the beginning of the pattern and one at the end. | Jackie, $1610 |
| Name has 5 letters and begins with Je | =XLOOKUP(“Je???”,B4:B21,D4:D21,,2) | In this case, we can use the ? (question mark) symbol to indicate that we can have any one character. So the pattern is Je??? | Jessy, $726 |
| Name begins with J and ends with d | =XLOOKUP(“J*d”, B4:B21, D4:D21,”No such person”, 2) | J*d means the lookup value begins with J, contains any number of letters and ends with d | Javed, $2277 |
What if there are two matching values?
If you have more than one matching item for the lookup value in your data, XLOOKUP, just like all other lookup functions in Excel, will always return the first matching item’s corresponding value.
As you can see in the above illustration, we have two sales persons with the name Johnson in our data.
When using =XLOOKUP(“Johnson”, B4:B21, D4:D21) we are going to get the net sales of the first Johnson ie $1540.
But what if I need to get the second or third or all the matching values?
In this case, you can use the new FILTER() function in Excel to get the second or all matching items.
Here is the formula.
=FILTER(D4:D21,B4:B21="Johnson")For more information on FILTER function, refer to this article.
Horizontal Lookup with XLOOKUP (HLOOKUP replacement):
XLOOKUP works just as good with horizontal data too, thus replacing any need for HLOOKUP function.
In the above example, I have monthly budget table and I want to lookup the budget value for April 2024.
We can use this XLOOKUP formula to do just that.
=XLOOKUP(C10,C3:N3,C4:N4)Returning entire row of information with XLOOKUP:
Another powerful feature of XLOOKUP is that it can return multiple values all corresponding to the same lookup value. For example, I want to see the budget, actual and balance information for the month of April 2024, from my budget spreadsheet below. We can use XLOOKUP for that easily.
=XLOOKUP(C10,C3:N3,C4:N6)In the above formula, by using multiple rows (C4:N6) as the return array, we can return all corresponding values for the lookup value in C10 – ie April 2024. Excel will automatically spill these values into separate cells on the worksheet.
XLOOKUP – things to keep in mind:
When using XLOOKUP, you must keep these points in mind:
- XLOOKUP needs Excel 365 or Excel on the web or Excel 2021: This function is not available in all the versions of Excel. So check your version of Excel before you start using xlookup. If you notice #NAME errors when working with XLOOKUP, that means your version of Excel does not support this function. Instead, use INDEX+MATCH formula.
- Use the If not found option to fix errors: To avoid any lookup errors (#N/As), use the fourth argument of the XLOOKUP function – if_not_found.
- Lock cell references when creating lookups: If you are writing multiple XLOOKUPs in a range, don’t forget to lock your cell references to absolute mode (change B4:B21 to $B$4:$B$21) so that when you drag or fill the formula down, your lookup and return array ranges don’t change. This is a common mistake and you will end up with wrong results. (absolute vs. relative references)
- Or better yet, convert your lookup data to a table: A simple fix to the relative reference issue is to use tables on your data. This way, you can write simple XLOOKUP formulas like this: =XLOOKUP(“Jackie”,sales[Sales Person],sales[Net Sales])
- In case of multiple matches, XLOOKUP always returns the first (or last matching item, if you used search mode option) value. This is why it is important to also learn how to use the FILTER function in Excel.
How is XLOOKUP better?
- XLOOKUP makes the most used formula in Excel straight forward and less error prone. You just write =XLOOKUP(what you want to find, the list, the result list) and boom, you get the answer (or #N/A error if the value is not found)
- Looks up exact match by default: One of the annoyances of VLOOKUP is that you must mention FALSE as last parameter to get correct result. XLOOKUP fixes that by doing exact matches by default. You can use match mode parameter to change the lookup behavior if you want.
- 4th parameter to support value not found scenario In most business situations, we are forced to wrap our lookup formulas with IFERROR or IFNA formulas to suppress errors. XLOOKUP offers 4th parameter (read more about it below) so you can tell what default output you want if your value is not found.
- XLOOKUP offers optional parameters to search for special situations. You can search from top or bottom, you can do wildcard searches and faster options to search sorted lists.
- It returns reference as output, not the value. While this may not mean much for normal users, pro Excel user’s eyes light up when they discover a formula that can return refs. That means, you can combine XLOOKUP outputs in innovative ways with other formulas. For example: XLOOKUP to create dependant drop down in Excel.
- It is so much cooler to type, you just type =XL. I am not sure if this is a happy coincidence but saying =XL to get this formula is just awesome.
XLOOKUP Syntax
Simple case:
=XLOOKUP(what you want to look, lookup list, result list)
=XLOOKUP("Jackie", sales[Sales Person], sales[Net Sales])
returns Jackie’s [Net Sales] if the name can be found in [Sales Person]
Optional parameters:
By default, you just need 3 parameters for XLOOKUP, as shown above. But you can also use 4th, 5th and 6th parameter to specify how you want the lookup to be done.
4th parameter for XLOOKUP: IF not found (no more IFERROR!!!)
The newly introduced XLOOKUP has an even newer feature. It now supports if not found option. This is the 4th parameter.
For example, use:
=XLOOKUP(“Chandoo”, sales[Sales Person], sales[Net Sales],”Value not found”) to return “Value not found” if the lookup value is not available in the search column – sales[Sales Person].
5th parameter for XLOOKUP: Match mode or type:
Use this to tell Excel how you want your MATCH to happen. The default is 0 (exact match) but you can also use these other options, shown below.
6th parameter for XLOOKUP: Search mode
Try this if you want to search from bottom to top. The default direction is top down (1).
XLOOKUP with two sheets
If you have data in two seperate sheets (or files), you can use XLOOKUP to quickly combine the data and get what you want.
Refer to my XLOOKUP with two sheets article for detailed instructions and formula examples.
XLOOKUP – Video Tutorial:
Here is a simple but effective video tutorial on how to use XLOOKUP function and how it can replace VLOOKUP and INDEX+MATCH functions. You can also watch the xlookup tutorial on my channel.
Download XLOOKUP examples – workbook
Click here to download the 13 XLOOKUP examples file.
And one more example file, this with INDEX+MATCH replacements.
Final thoughts on XLOOKUP
In my opinion, XLOOKUP is a terrific function and a must have for any data professional. It is part of my essential Excel formulas list for data analysts.
When we nest XLOOKUP formulas, we can also perform more complex lookups like 2-WAY lookups or search across different worksheets. I discuss some of these advanced scenarios in a recent video on my YouTube channel. Please watch it here.
The only downside of XLOOKUP is the compatibility. It doesn’t work in all versions of Excel. For this reason, I still think there is value in learning how to use VLOOKUP and INDEX MATCH functions.
Do let me know what you think about XLOOKUP and if you have any questions about it using the comments section.
Learn more about Data Analysis with Excel:
This post is part of my data analysis with Excel series. Please learn other topics too and improve your data skills with Excel.
- How to use Excel Tables – 13 time saving tips
- How to use Dynamic Array functions in Excel such as Filter, Unique, Sort etc.
- Working with Power Query in Excel to save time and shine at work
- Know more about XLOOKUP with my course
55 Responses to “Quickly Fill Blank Cells in a Table [Reader Tip]”
this can be done in 3 steps:
1. select the blank cells (as described above)
2. select the cell with the value you want to copy (CTRL-CLICK to add to the selection)
3. place cursor into formula bar and hit CTRL-ENTER
please ignore or delete my comment - it solves a different problem: copying a single value to all blank cells. apologies.
That is a great method and it saves me a lot of time! I first heard about it from Mr Excel in this video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHmh_viESuw. He has a neat way of doing the paste special values at the end of his video.
Hi!
I fill blank cells with an almost identical method; go to any the first blank cell in any column and place the equation and enter (=D2, for the same example above); then copy that cell, select the columns/range you want to fill (even if in different columns), Special, go to Blanks, Paste (default), copy all range and paste as values.
although the two methods are almost identical, what i use might be less hectic regarding entering formulas without clicking any of the cells (step 7)
ie:
1. fill an empty cell with using =D2(cell above)
2. copy D3 (the cell with the formula)
2. Select blank cells after selecting the range with empty cells (steps 1,2,3,4 and 5)
3. paste (normal)
4. copy then paste as values
BR
AQ
Great tip. I'll use it later today!
Martin -Thank You! This wonderful tip will save me a great deal of time each week.
Thanks Martin! Up to this point, I've always used a clumsy combination of filters and fill-down's. This is much cleaner.
Fantastic. Thanks for sharing.
None of these steps are necessary, Excel has this feature built into the ribbon.
Click on any row label in the table where there are blanks under it.
Click on the PivotTable Tools>Design tab on the ribbon
Click the Report Layout button in the Layout group at the far left
Select the option in the list
Done
To remove the duplication, use the feature right below that option.
There is a slightly simpler way and more flexible. Hihglight the required cells - which could be the column only in your table. Do the Ctrl-G, Alt-S, K, Enter (or Goto, Special, Blank Cells) so that they are highlighted and Type ={up arrow}, Ctl-Enter. This will make the cells equal the cell above - you do not have to enter any address at all. The technique can obviously be adapted to many situations. An example of the practical use for this is when you have saved an Inventory report from an accounting program that prints a heading (or something) on one line and prints details of that group (the heading) on subsequent lines (without the heading).
Hi Martin,
great trick! If only I had known it earlier, it would have saved me quite some time...
Not again, thanks!
I came across this in a class recently myself and posted a tutorial on my blog. The Special area of the Go To dialogue box is wicked. Some great options in there, hidden away waiting to be found.
Good work Martin.
Hi Martin,
Many thanks for sharing this powerful trick. Saves alot of time.
Gabriel
Please give credit where credit is due. Posted on June 30, 1998: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/fillempt.htm
Ahhh... Very neat trick. Thank you, Martin.
Ken, I tried to follow your post but could not get it to work. Could not find options
I have been using this trick for ages and would be lost without it.
Thank you very much!!! I had other tricks to deal with it, but this one is way faster and easier!!!
@BigG: Good resource there. Thanks for sharing the link with us. Please note that, this technique is not new. I am sure many Excel users would have discovered this already. We have not copied or inspired from David's article. It was just a happy coincidence.
@Ken: Your technique works only with Pivot Tables made in Excel 2010 or above.
Thanks Martin!! Nice post 🙂
@Chandoo: I also use the ASAP utilities add- in available in the link below:
http://www.asap-utilities.com/download-asap-utilities.php
This summarizes lot of hidden features in excel (like using Find function on entire workbook, password protecting all sheets at once, copying print setting of sheets etc.,) and is quite useful for beginners like me 😉
Thanks Martin and Ahmad Qadah. This is useful. I previously used to ask the senders to retrieve the data again so that I did not have the blanks.
Nice trick. I always use the specialcells method of the range object in code to access this powerful goto special dialog box in vba - a trick that Chandoo taught me in vba school - which is another reason you should join (a free bit of promotion for you Chandoo..!)
🙂
Yes I have seen this one before so credit may belong elsewhere. Never the less still especially useful where a legacy system report is sent to a text file which is subsequently re-imported to Excel but the original report is indented by groups. You can then recreate a complete data record for each report line
NB Different Ken to above
Thanks Martin - great post. I often work with data in this form and I usually fill in the blanks manually, by copying and dragging a cell value down - this way is much less prone to human error!
One challenge.. the last step where I change formula to constants. This replaces any formulas that I have as well. What If I want to change the formula to constants only where I replaced them with blank ?
Hi martin, thanks a million 🙂
Nicely explained Martin, thanks for sharing this tip. As Tanja says, this method is far less error-prone. When I first learned this method it saved me lots of time, so I decided to create a video on Youtube to share it with others. In my 3 minute video I compare side-by-side two methods of filling in blanks on 500 rows of data (1) using the fill handle, (2) using Go To > Special > Select Blanks
Just like in Mr Excel's video shared by Andrew in comment (3), I used the right mouse button to drag the selection border to do paste special values at the last step.
If you want to check out my video, visit this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TDcVOKbm34&hd=1
I've came across this a month ago, and it really is a gem of a tip!
Thanks. Great tip and useful for a range of excel projects 🙂
Vishy,
When you Ctrl Enter the formula into all blank cells, Excel keeps the formerly blank cells highlighted, revealing the new values.
At this point you can choose to Copy and Paste Special them as constants. All other formulas remain untouched.
BigG,
I was not familiar with that link and I certainly didn't copy the article from it. As Chandoo commented this is not a new technique, and I am hardly the first to have written about it.
@Martin,
using office 2007; you can not copy multiple selection, what version are you using?
Thanks
Thanks, Really nice, really helpful.
wow, how cool is that! Thank you for this tipp!! GREAT!
I thought this was a great tip. I had never done such things with tables in Excel (having only converted to 2007 a couple of months ago, I soon discovered what a versatile tool they can be). So I decided to create my own copy and duplicate the process. Taking it a step further, I recorded the steps in VBA and used those as a guideline to create this simple macro which accomplishes the same function.
Caveat: this will only work when a cell in the table is selected and it will replace ALL formulas in the table with their values.
Sub FillTableBlanks()
' Macro created 20 October 2011 by Jason B White
'Declare Variable
Dim strTable As String
'Get Current Table Name
strTable = ActiveCell.ListObject.Name
'Select Current Table
Range(strTable).Select
'Fill Blank Cells With Formulas
Selection.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeBlanks).FormulaR1C1 = "=R[-1]C"
'Paste Values Of Formulas
Selection = Selection.Value
End Sub
I hope that submitting macros is sanctioned in this forum. My previous post was my first ever attempt at contributing to an Excel blog. And I'm unaware if there is a way to differentiate macro snippets by using tags as I've seen in other Excel VBA forums.
I just wanted to mention that I figured out a way to modify my macro so that it doesn't overwrite ALL formulas in the table, but only those which were filled in by the macro.
Modifying the fourth section (Fill Blank Cells With Formulas) as shown below accomplishes that:
'Fill Blank Cells With Formulas
Selection.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeBlanks).Select
Selection.FormulaR1C1 = "=R[-1]C"
Hi,
I face a similar situation in office and use the below macro after selecting the range of data across which I want to duplicate the data below.
Sub FillBlankCellsSelectionDown()
Dim rAcells As Range, rLoopCells As Range
Set rAcells = Selection
For Each rLoopCells In rAcells
If rLoopCells.Value = "" Then
rLoopCells.FillDown
End If
Next rLoopCells
End Sub
re: paste special -> values
Drag the Paste Values toolbutton on to the standard toolbar next to the Paste button and save a couple of clicks.
Hi everyone many thanks for sharing this solutions but do not work Excel 2003? right? Thanks
@Alejandra:
I know that the macro I created was in Excel 2007. I assume that it's probably specific to 2007 (or 2010), but can't be sure, as I no longer have access to a PC running Excel 2003.
I have to admit that I didn't even realize that tables existed when I was using 2003.
Filling blank cells (cleaning-up the pivot-table aftermath) is one of our "daily-ritual", to dealing with those, we've create a short-cut (one of the many) to very quickly fill-up those blanks.
Basically what we need to do is to select the whole area to be filled-up (with the value above), and click a button, VBA automatically deals with the rest.
We use VBA to handle this problem just as mentioned above by several other people, however, I think we'll also need to consider the extreme (well, actually not that extreme if you're dealing with lots of data on a day-to-day basis) case: that the "blank" cells are highly fragmented, e.g. the maximum "areas" that Excel 2003 can handle is around 6500 (sorry I couldn't find the exact spec).
Thus, in our function, there's another step to cut-off the number of cells going into the "specialcells" function, just to make sure that the function will run in every condition.
I just wanna give a solution to similar problem which i face regularly while copying the data from a pivot as it is. I apply the following solution which i think is the easiest one on earth. Select a cell F2 (considering that column E is the last column filled with data) and type the following formula =IF(ISBLANK(A2),F1,A2). Now just drag the formula equivalent to the length and breadth of the entire range of data which want to fill in this case drag it from F2:I21 , remember do not apply on the cost column.
Now just copy whole new range i.e: F2:I21 and paste special it over the former range A2:D21. That's it 🙂
If u find any problem related to this formula u r welcome to contact me.
thanks martin
This doesn't work in excel 2007. So request to Martin , if he can confirm which version he has used. Guess 2010.
@BK
my method (comment #4) which is almost the same as Martins works on excel 2007... i've been using it since 2007 came out actually.
Excelent trick, thanks Martin.
[...] Quickly Fill Blank Cells in a Table [...]
eXCEEELLTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO......!
Many thanks to Martin.
im getting an error no cells were found why is this
Very cool trick!
I'm facing a similar problem, but I'd like to use a formula to pick the first non-empty above the referenced cell, and keep the empty cells empty. Any solution?
Example case:
I've got 3 columns, 1) consecutive dates, 2) my current weight, 3) my BMI. The first data row would be like: A2) jan-1, B2) 70 (kg), C2) =70/1,75^2 (because my height, 175cm, is pretty constant)
Now of course I forget to write down my weight on jan-2nd, so the formula would return 0. If my weight is blank, I'd like to refer to the last 'non-blank' weight (up the list of course, so jan-1st).
The solution on this page would solve my problem partially, but every time I leave cells blank, I have to repeat these steps. A formula would prevent this, AND I can still see which days were actually not filled in.
[…] http://chandoo.org/wp/2011/10/17/fill-blank-cells-in-a-table/ […]
Thxs! Yes, "knew" you could do this with "one" col of data...never thought to try it with >>multiple<< cols...Cool!
Thanks a lot i was searching this thing for many days ,
Thanks a lot to martin
Thanks a lot to martin
Thanks a lot i was searching this thing for many days ,
Thanks a lot to martin
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There are occasionally long discussions of the cost of nuclear relative to the cost of renewables in the technical literature.