Linking tables smartly 😎

One day, the boss says: "Link two tables for me for a report."
So I linked them. I took yarn, knitting needles — and knitted them. It turned out beautiful, a warm piece of fabric.
He looks at me like I'm crazy:
"What are you doing? I was talking about data!"

That's how I learned about VLOOKUP 😁

VLOOKUP is a function that links tables

The principle is as simple as a door key ✅
- Left column = key (SKU, ID, name)
- Right column = what you're looking for (price, address, position)

You give VLOOKUP a key, it finds the right row and pulls the result from there. No manual searching through thousands of rows, you get the answer in seconds.

But there's a catch — the N/A error ❌
It simply means: "Not found". The key wasn't found, no data.

Why does this happen:
1️⃣ Extra space in the key ("Ivanov " instead of "Ivanov")
2️⃣ The key doesn't exist in the second table at all
3️⃣ The key is to the right, but VLOOKUP only looks to the left

The last one is the biggest pain. VLOOKUP strictly looks for the key in the first column of the range. If the data is arranged differently — that's it, game over 🤷‍♀️

What to do 🤔

There's the INDEX + MATCH combo — it's more powerful. It searches in any direction, left, right, even diagonally in your mind.

And in newer versions of Excel (2021 and Microsoft 365), XLOOKUP appeared. This one can do everything: looks left, handles errors itself. But if your version is old — learn INDEX+MATCH, you won't go wrong.

In short:
1️⃣ VLOOKUP — for simple cases when the key is on the left
2️⃣ INDEX+MATCH — when VLOOKUP can't handle it
3️⃣ XLOOKUP — if you have a fresh Excel

I've posted a small set for practice in the comments.

And how do you link tables? VLOOKUP, INDEX+MATCH, or still with yarn?
Write in the comments 👇

#Excel

@data_dzen🙂