Excel VLOOKUP from Another Sheet

What this does

VLOOKUP searches down the first column of a table for a value, then returns whatever sits in the same row in a column you choose by number. It is the classic Excel lookup: you give it the value to find, the table, the column count, and a FALSE flag for an exact match. The catch is that it only looks to the right of the lookup column and you must count the return column yourself. Keep the inputs visible and clearly labelled and the whole thing stays auditable — anyone who opens the file later, including you, can see at a glance exactly what feeds the result and change one assumption without hunting through the formula. For “excel vlookup from another sheet”, the reliable version is a short checking loop, not just the first command that appears to work. Run it on a deliberately small range first, watch how the affected sheet change, and only then apply the same setup to the full sheet. When a formula is involved, keep the inputs labelled beside it, reference cells instead of typing values, and apply number formatting only after the result checks out. That is what makes a data step that keeps your analysis trustworthy useful in real work: repeatable, auditable, and not dependent on memory or luck.

A worked example

Employee names are in A2:A100 and salaries in C2:C100, so the table spans A2:C100. To pull the salary for the name in E2: =VLOOKUP(E2, A2:C100, 3, FALSE). Column 3 is the salary column counted from A, and FALSE returns #N/A rather than a wrong row if the name is missing. For "Maria" in E2 this returns 54000. VLOOKUP is the most widely used lookup in Excel and works in every version, so it stays the go-to when a file must open in older Excel that lacks XLOOKUP. One habit worth forming early: name the cells that hold your inputs, so the formula reads in plain language instead of a string of cell addresses. A reviewer — or you in three months — can then follow the logic without decoding what B7 and D2 were supposed to mean, which is most of what makes a sheet maintainable.

In Google Sheets

Google Sheets handles this almost identically to Excel. The formula syntax above is the same, and the menu lives under a slightly different label rather than a ribbon tab. Use the platform toggle at the top of the page to switch every keyboard shortcut between Windows and Mac, and expect at most cosmetic differences in naming. The aim was to get you unstuck fast and leave you a little more capable than a copy-paste would. The answer is at the top, the tool proves it, and the detail above shows why it holds — so the next time a colleague asks, you can answer without reaching for search. The short version of “excel vlookup from another sheet”: the answer is at the top of this page, the tool proves it on your own numbers, and the sections above explain why it holds so the next variation does not stump you. Excel rewards people who reference cells instead of typing values and who keep inputs separate from formulas, because that is what makes a result you can audit months later. Build it once, deliberately, with the live tool as a check, and you convert a one-off lookup into a reusable skill — which is the whole point of learning the why and not just the what.

Common mistakes

• Leaving off FALSE, so VLOOKUP does an approximate match and returns the wrong row when the data is not sorted.
• Counting col_index_num from the worksheet column A instead of from the left edge of table_array.
• Trying to return a value to the left of the lookup column — VLOOKUP can only look right, so use INDEX/MATCH or XLOOKUP instead.

Frequently asked questions