Do you ever want to have an image or picture lookup in Excel? Something like below.
In this article, learn how to set up an image lookup using Excel. You can use this to display staff details, product images or machine parts etc.
Video - Dynamic Image Lookups in Excel
If you want to understand the picture lookup technique and see it in action, check out my YouTube video below. For text instructions and images, please read on.
Step 1: Set up your data
To get image lookups, you need to set up your data, ideally in a separate worksheet. The trick is to have one image per cell. Something like this:
Tip: Do not use Tables for storing your data. Instead keep them in a spreadsheet range.
Your images need to fit snugly inside the cell, without touching the boundaries for best results.
Also make sure to turn off gridlines on that spreadsheet tab.
You can do this from View ribbon, as depicted below.
Step 2: Write formula to lookup the image
In a separate worksheet, we will write formula to lookup images. Let’s say we have an input cell with employee name in C5.
We need to get the matching employee picture.
The trick is to write a formula that returns a reference to the image of employee in C5.
You can use either INDEX+MATCH or XLOOKUP.
Let’s use XLOOKUP:
=XLOOKUP(C5, data!$D$3:$D$14, data!$C$3:$C$14)
This will return a reference to the cell with the image of employee in C5.
Of course the result of the formula would be 0, as column C (data!$C$3:$C$14) has no values (just pictures) in it.
Step 3: Insert a named range with the formula
Now that we know what formula to write, go to Formula ribbon and click on Define name button.
- Name will be “employee_picture”
- Refers to will be our XLOOKUP formula from above
See below illustration to understand how the name can be created.
Step 4: Set up a picture link to show image lookup result
This is the last step folks. Go to the data worksheet where you have all the pictures.
- Select any one cell with image and copy it (CTRL+C).
- Go back to the results worksheet, right click anywhere and select linked picture from Paste Special options. See below picture to understand.
- You will get a picture of the selected employee. But this one is special. It is linked to the cell you copied.
- Select the picture and formula bar will show the address of the cell to which it refers.
- Now comes the most important step. Go to formula bar and edit the reference. Type =employee_picture and press enter.
Bingo, you have just created a picture lookup.
If you change the input cell and type a different person name, the lookup image will show that person.
Related: Learn more about Picture Links
Tips on using Image Lookup Technique
Image lookup through picture links offers exciting possibilities. Here are some tips & gotchas you want to keep in mind.
- The picture link images are just like any other images in Excel. So when you select them, you can use picture format ribbon to apply various formatting options to them. For example, you can crop them to shape or apply shadow effect to them.
- Picture links work best if all images are of same size.
- While picture links look great on screen, they tend to be grainy when printed.
- They work well with dashboards too. For example, You can use picture links to display top 3 products or bottom 5 sales persons in dashboards.
- For image lookup scenarios, consider adding a missing person image and use that in XLOOKUP if_not_found parameter. It looks amazing.
⬇ Download Picture Lookup Example File
Click here to download sample file with the picture lookup example. It has few different XLOOKUP formulas, an additional image lookup trick to show team members and more. Examine the named ranges to learn how it works.
Got questions about image lookups? Fire away...
Give picture lookups a try and if you face any issues during implementation, please post a comment here so I can help you.
Also, check out these other types of lookups:
24 Responses
I’d suggest simply using the subtotal function and filtering the data using the Win/Loss column. You get the same results and the formula is more comprehensible.
@John
That is one option.
There are times however when you want to see the whole data table or a filtered subset and still want to produce summary reports against an unfiltered field.
Is there a particular reason why you are using a comma and the unary (–) operator for the second array in the SUMPRODUCT formula? It seems to work the same if you were to string the arrays together using the asterisk (*). The advantage is that SUMPRODUCT treats the entire string of arrays as a single array.
@Mathew
Your correct, There is no difference.
I thought it may have been easier to explain this method.
Is there a way to do this on a large set of data? As in ~100,000 rows? When I try I get an error because the formula becomes too long. It says the max length of a formula is 8,192 characters. Excel 2010.
How do I incorporate a specific text within a cell for the second array. For instance, – -(C7:C13=”Apple”)
when I chose a specific text the formula does not work.
@RB
I am not sure what is the issue as if I use the sample data in the post the following work fine
Count:
=SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET(C7:C13,ROW(C7:C13)-MIN(ROW(C7:C13)),,1)), –(C7:C13=”L”))
Sum:
=SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET(C7:C13,ROW(C7:C13)-MIN(ROW(C7:C13)),,1)),(C7:C13=”L”)*(D7:D13))
You may want to check that there are no leading or trailing spaces in your list of Apples
I should have given a better explanation. Heres my situation. I have a column with cells filled with names like Column 1, Column 2, Pier 1, Pier 2, etc. If the cell just contained Pier and searched for that it works. But because it has other characters in the cell its not recognizing the pier. So how can I extract specific characters of a string of text in this formula?
Hopefully this was a better explanation
Hello-
This formula works pretty well for me except that it slow down excel and prevents some of my macros from working. I was wondering if there was a way to program this in VBA so that excel isn’t always trying to recalculate it. I would like to use a push of a button to get it to run then paste in a cell.
Thanks!
I am trying to sum filtered data in a column, but would want to ignore the negative values in the column. How to go about doing this?
@Akshay
Why not just add a filter to that column to only show the values greater than zero?
The negative values are required for reporting purposes, but their effect on the total is distorting the required output. Please advise.
@Akshay
I’d suggest making a post in the Chandoo.org Forums
http://forum.chandoo.org/
Attach a sample file to simplify the task
I have this working for counting and summing, however, I have a list and for the second array, I need a criteria. That is, I’m looking for b13:b200=”01.??.??” or =left((a1,2) or something like that. These types of criteria matches do not appear to work as I get a blank as a result.
Thanks!
@Bob
As your formula b13:b200=”01.??.??” looks like you are trying to check the first day of the month of the range
What about trying Day(B13:B200)=1
Hai Experts,
i understood this formula well and working fine in MS Excel 2013
but when the same am trying to place in google Spreadsheet it shows error as
“SUMPRODUCT has mismatched range sizes. Expected row count: 1. column count: 1. Actual row count: 2014, column count: 1.” and as a result #VALUE! Appears in cell.
Can anyone please help me how would i get it done in Google Spread sheet
or is there any other formula as a substitute for this.
Thank you very much.
thanks for providing this.. but why does excel keeps on prompting Circular referencing in cell D3?
@Vivek
I don’t know
I just downloaded the file and it is working fine and not showing that error
Goto the Formulas, Calculation Options Tab and check that Calculation is set to Automatic
What version of Excel and Windows are you using ?
I know that this forum is for MS Excel, but I am trying to help someone who is working in Google Sheets. The below formula works in Excel but Google Sheets returns:
“SUMPRODUCT has mismatched range sizes. Expected row count: 1. column count: 1. Actual row count: 39000, column count: 1.” and as a result #VALUE! Appears in cell.
This is the same problem asked by Srichirin above. Does anyone know if there is a formula for Google Sheets that will replicate what MS Excel does?
=SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET($C$6:$C$39500,ROW($C$6:$C$39500)-MIN(ROW($C$6:$C$39500)),,1)),- -($C$6:$C$39500=H1),($D$6:$D$39500))
Trying to find a SUMPRODUCT formula that counts the word Closed by date for the last 7 days in a filtered list.
=COUNTIF(M:M,”>”&TODAY()-7) works ok for unfiltered count Column M contains Closure dates (blank if open) and Column L is Status Open or Closed
@ Terry
Please ask the question at the Chandoo.org Forums
https://chandoo.org/forum/
Please attach a sample file to ensure a quicker more accurate answer
I used this formula and worked like a charm! But, now I’ve been requested to use it but adding not one but two criteria in the same formula. For instance the sum I was doing added negative and positive numbers. I’ve been asked to use the exact same formula but adding that only positive numbers were considered… any idea on how to do this?
How exactly do you do sum filtered cells when two criteria are need not just one?
Thank you so much brother literally I have been struggling since morning to get the sum of the filtered category, however, after reading your blog attentively i got my solution, so thanks a lot once again.