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.
23 Responses to “Learn Top 10 Excel Features”
What it looks like if excel without formula?? 🙂
It would be not excel it would just be fancy tables in which you could just use power point. (Chandoo) would Access be an alternative?
Awesome piece of work!!!
Great article.
Chandoo - my biggest interest in the article was the awesome word-graphic at the top - where did you go to get it done into a shape?
@Rich.. thank you. I used http://www.tagxedo.com/ to generate this word cloud. I took all the comments in the original post, pasted them in tagxedo website and set up the shape etc.
Awesome Chandoo.. You need always needs coffee to start up with. BTW , how did u created the Heart Shaped picture filled with High Repetitive text in it .. Please put it on your Next blog ...
Chandoo, good article. I’ve added a link to it from Connexion – our collection of the most useful and interesting spreadsheet-related articles from the web. See http://www.i-nth.com/resources/connexion
Hi,
Just one small question. Where the hell have been I in the past for not discovering this website sooner?
I've lost a job interview recently where even though I had the subject knowledge, I was not upto their mark in Excel.
Thank you for all the free tips, guidance and for creating this forum environment.
[PS: I've just been through the site for the 1st time, and have signed up for the newsletter. You can expect pretty stupid questions from me soon]
Hy Chandoo, you always inspire me with to explore something new in excel. This data structure table is only for excel 2007 or compatible to 2010. I recently installed latest excel version 2013 in my System and experience problems regarding operating according to previous one. I'm waiting your article relates to that excel version.
Thanks
Awesome article Mr. Chandoo and that is a awesome heart shaped pic you created. Great tips as well.
[...] Learn Top 10 Excel Features | Chandoo.org – Learn Microsoft Excel Online. [...]
Chandoo is awesome..
Thanks, i got better, And i always get 90.50 in my grade card but now i get 96.50 i improved because of the tutorials you gave, Thank You Very Much Chandoo Guy.
Hi chandoo, i am intersted in seeing the video or step by step done procedure of analysing the comments and presenting in the data percentage steps. I think this one would be first step in finding out how generally happens data calculation. Thank you.
As well i would like to know how to get that black shape art of your face which i see in chandoo. I am interested in making it for me.
Nice to see the features considered by Excel users to be most useful. It might be a good idea to also analyze StackOverflow Excel questions to see what keywords appear most often.
Here are my top 10 Excel Features (for advanced users):
http://www.analystcave.com/excel-10-top-excel-features/
Thanks a ton for this it totally helped with my homework ????
Very good effort
Thank you for this. Lots of learning in the links you've provided for this septuagenarian.
Pls send me new post
Dude, your humor ? ?
Loved your work.
Hello Sir,
I am Sanjeev Khakre and i from Indore City, India , I am your big follower and i have watch your videos and learnt a lots of excel trick or function and many more . thanks so much for all of your excellent support.
Your excel knowledge is real awesome.
Thanks
Sanjeev
Your work is excellent but pls willing to know more details about the features of microsoft excel
Chandoo Would Access be a better alternative than VB?