Alert readers of chandoo.org would have noticed that I have been away from action for a week. You are right. I took an unexpected break this week. I was commissioned to do an important baby sitting project. And you know how difficult they can be. So for the last one week Jo (my wife) and I were taking care of 4 kids – 2 ours and 2 my wife’s elder sister’s. It was mostly fun, but at times really annoying too. Naturally, I did not get much computer time.
In my absence, I have asked Hui to make a post or two. And I see that he has done an awesome job writing about Form controls & Hyperlinks – 2 of the very useful features in Excel that are rarely well explained.
March 2011 is best month since starting this blog
In other news, I just checked the statistics for the month of March and realized that, wait for it….
Yes, March 2011 is the best month since I started this blog. We have surpassed several previous records for traffic, conversations, connections and revenue.
Here is the report card of Chandoo.org for last 13 months (March 2010 – March 2011):
Thank you very much for making this happen.
All the things that I do on this site mean very little with out you. You constantly inspire me to learn and share more. I wake up with a smile and go thru my day with vigor and go back to sleep with a content heart, all because of you. Thank you very much for all that you do to Chandoo.org.
About the Dashboard Week
I have not forgotten about your contributions. In fact, I am overwhelmed by the response I got. There were more than 20 entries and I am still processing all that you have shared. I will put up a massive post sharing all the content, ideas and snapshots on Dashboards by next week.
Mandatory Bonus Excel Tip
You are not only visiting my site to hear me rant about how difficult is it to baby sit my rowdy kids. You also want to learn a bit of Excel. So here we go:
Unlock the hidden MVLOOKUP formula
We all gripe about how VLOOKUP returns only first match. We want to get all the matching results. But how?!?
Thankfully, there is a formula called MVLOOKUP that Microsoft did not want you to find. So they hid it deep inside Excel. But just like everything else, we can unlock the MVLOOKUP formula too.
Follow this simple procedure:
- In the cell where you want MVLOOKUP formula, just type =M V L O O K U P(value you are looking for, table of data, column number, false) and press CTRL+SHIFT+Enter.
- Note1: You must include spaces between each letter in the MVLOOKUP.
- Note2: You must use the CTRL and SHIFT keys located on the left side of keyboard only.
- Note3: This works in Excel 2007 and Windows machines only.
- When you press CTRL+SHIFT+Enter, you will see that excel has returned an array of values corresponding the value you are looking for.
If the formula doesn’t work:
If you are getting #NAME or some other error try quitting Excel and restart it. But this time, when clicking on Excel icon, hold Alt key.
or use an alternative method to fetch 2nd or 3rd matching value using VLOOKUP.
That is all
You have a fantastic weekend. I should be able to greet you on Monday with a fun Excel nugget.
23 Responses
“Unlock the hidden MVLOOKUP formula” — This is awesome Chandoo !
I am indebted to you forever !!!
For more info on similar aspects of this formula, visit http://mail.google.com/mail/help/motion.html
Chandoo –
I wanted to leave a note, in general, of appreciation for your various and valuable contributions. As a PM, an organization’s capabilities can create limits on the available tools to track and report projects. However, in the past year and a half, I have always found the solution coming here.
On a side note, you do a great job responding to the less-than-appreciative posters’, with comments ranging from refuting a template’s cost/benefit to debating the effectiveness of some chart type. Based on your replies, I can safely state I am more perturbed at the feedback than you are – truly undeserving. The entire dashboard template has helped me steadily track and report progress for three customers thus far, and I have effectively demonstrated focus areas using your heat map.
So again, thank you very much for the training, blog information, and the multitude of free/purchase templates you provide. In a job where we work with what we have (usually meaning Excel, as opposed to a project-specific tool/app), you keep it professional and polished! Keep up the great work!
– Brad
Hi Chandoo,
You are my biggest icon,thanks for the great post..
Happy April Fools Day to you too, Chandoo!
Nice one…
Not as efficient as the “built in” version, but here’s a MVLOOKUP udf:
http://www.vbaexpress.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-4436.html
Hey Chandoo,
To create this nice looking dashboard on user stats, did you use the MVLOOKUP Function?? 🙂
there is a nice mvlookup udf created by Juan Gonzalez…
http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18885
i think that this would work pretty well in a dashboard with need to generate such a list but it always needs to refer to a unique key column so you can get to any col/row intersection (index/match) with max/min/etc questions….
Hi thanks for all in advance for your excellent post
but i’m intrigued by the mvlook up, does it works on excell 2010? because i have tried and no results so far… and any of us cant deny the utility of this function…
any idea how to unlock this function en the latest excell?
thanks
México
Hi,
GOOD JOB….GOOD JOB
jap
Hi chandoo,
Very gud congrats
hi Chandoo,
Very happy for you that Chandoo.org is attracting the attention that it deserves! Well done & keep doing it!!!
Running Windows XP & Excel 2007, I keep getting the #NAME? error. Tried to restart Excel holding Alt down & I get the Office Excel 2007 Properties window. MspaceVspaceLspaceOspaceOspaceKspaceUspaceP(formula) is not working for me, at least not yet!
Any ideas?
Thanks
@All.. thank you so much for your appreciation. 🙂
@Brad… Thanks. It really means a lot to me. I like to not focus on negative comments.
@Arturo & Neil & Others: Sorry for misguiding you. The MVLOOKUP thing was meant to be a mild april fools joke.
Ok, thats just evil…. nah just kidding jejeje
your blog is just awesome in making us awesome in excel
Hahahaha… I tried many times still erorr, you got me..
you deserved looking after those 4 kids too … :))
Chandoo, I love your sense of humor, love the great info on your site and how you present it, and especially love the enthusiasm you bring. I think that last one is the key ingredient.
I tell pretty much everyone that even says the word “Excel” about your site. If every technology had a site like yours, the IT and end-user world would be a much smarter, more productive place.
Thanks again,
A 25-year IT/Developer veteran
Does MVLOOKUP (with spaces between letters) work in a Spanish Excel version? what will be its spelling?.
Thanks,
Carlos
@Carlos
You need to read Chandoos comment in Comment 12) above.
?????? ?????
I apologize, but I didn’t understand the “when clicking on Excel icon, hold Alt key.” I am getting the #Name error, but when I hold the Alt key I only get the properties window for the shortcut.
@Bill, Kevin
You need to read Chandoo’s 3rd Dot point in Comment 12) above
yes, i tried to send “April Fools” in Hindi to the site (my little project) and it came up with all of the question marks you see. i suspect the site is trying to detranslate the phrase back to English. also, i did learn a lot tracking down MVLOOKUP references that do work.