Vlookup to the Left with Index and Match function

What if your lookup value is to the right of the information that you want VLOOKUP to return? Conventional wisdom says VLOOKUP cannot handle a negative column number in order to go left of the key.

You are looking up names and want the department. But the lookup table has Department on the left and Name on the Right. It would be nice if you could =VLOOKUP(A2,Table,-1,False) but you can not specify -1 as the column to return.

One solution is =VLOOKUP(I7,CHOOSE({1,2},G1:G5,F1:F5),2,0). However, I prefer to use MATCH to find where the name is located and then use INDEX to return the correct value.

The solution is to use INDEX and MATCH. =INDEX($D$4:$D$11,MATCH(A2,$E$4:$E$11,0)).

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Turn Data Sideways

Someone built this lookup table sideways, stretching across C1:N2. I realize that I could use HLOOKUP instead of VLOOKUP, but I prefer to turn the data back to a vertical orientation. Copy C1:N2. Right-click in A4 and choose the Transpose option under the Paste Options. Transpose is the fancy Excel word for “turn the data sideways.” I transpose a lot. But I use Alt+E , S , E , Enter to transpose instead of the right-click. There is a problem, though. Transpose is a one-time snapshot of the data. What if you have formulas in the horizontal data? Is there a way to transpose with a formula? The first way is a bit bizarre. If you are trying to transpose 12 horizontal cells, you need to select 12 vertical cells in a single selection. Start typing a formula such as =TRANSPOSE(C2:N2) in the active cell but do not press Enter. Instead, hold down Ctrl+Shift and then press Enter . This puts a single array formula in the selected cells. T...

Rank Function

How to Use the RANK Function If you give the RANK function a number, and a list of numbers, it will tell you the rank of that number in the list, either in ascending or descending order. For example, in the screen shot below, there is a list of 10 student test scores, in cells B2:B11. To find the rank of the the first student's score in cell B2, enter this formula in cell C2: =RANK(B2,$B$2:$B$11) Then, copy the formula from cell C2 down to cell C11, and the scores will be ranked in descending order. RANK Function Arguments There are 3 arguments for the RANK function: number : in the above example, the number to rank is in cell B2 ref : We want to compare the number to the list of numbers in cells $B$2:$B$11 . Use an absolute reference ($B$2:$B11), instead of a relative reference (B2:B11)so the referenced range will stay the same when you copy the formula down to the cells below order : (optional) This argument tells Excel whether to rank the list in ascending or descending o...

Data Cleaning Functions in Excel

The CLEAN function Using the CLEAN function removes nonprintable characters text. For example, if the text labels shown in a column are using crazy nonprintable characters that end up showing as solid blocks or goofy symbols, you can use the CLEAN function to clean up this text. The cleaned‐up text can be stored in another column. You can then work with the cleaned text column. The CLEAN function uses the following syntax: CLEAN(text) The text argument is the text string or a reference to the cell holding the text string that you want to clean. For example, to clean the text stored in Cell A1, use the following syntax: CLEAN(A1) The CONCATENATE function The CONCATENATE function combines, or joins, chunks of text into a single text string. The CONCATENATE function uses the following syntax: CONCATENATE(text1,text2,text3,...) The text1, text2, text3, and so on arguments are the chunks of text that you want to combine into a single string. For example, if the city, state, and ZIP co...

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