Sample Employee Data
An HR roster with department, job title, hire date, salary and city — for lookups, headcount reporting and date maths.
What is in the file
8 columns, 150 data rows by default, plus a header row. These are the first ten rows of the default file.
| Employee ID | First Name | Last Name | Department | Job Title | City | Hire Date | Annual Salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EMP-1000 | Sofia | Bennett | Marketing | Coordinator | Malmö | 2022-09-03 | 145015 |
| EMP-1001 | Felix | Dubois | Finance | Manager | Berlin | 2023-12-03 | 54609 |
| EMP-1002 | Emma | Kowalski | Marketing | Coordinator | Austin | 2025-03-02 | 97827 |
| EMP-1003 | Adam | Dubois | Support | Manager | Berlin | 2020-05-22 | 121421 |
| EMP-1004 | Liam | Bennett | Marketing | Analyst | Austin | 2021-08-21 | 50639 |
| EMP-1005 | Oliver | Andersen | Support | Specialist | Kraków | 2022-11-19 | 74233 |
| EMP-1006 | Mia | Bennett | Operations | Analyst | Bologna | 2024-02-18 | 117451 |
| EMP-1007 | Jonas | Andersen | Sales | Specialist | Toronto | 2025-05-18 | 141045 |
| EMP-1008 | Nora | Novak | Operations | Engineer | Rotterdam | 2024-09-30 | 105767 |
| EMP-1009 | Ethan | Silva | Sales | Director | Lyon | 2025-12-30 | 129361 |
Download 150 rows
8 columns · header included · no signup
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About this dataset
A people table is where most lookup practice actually happens: you have an employee ID on one sheet and need the department, the salary band or the hire date on another. Hire dates spread across several years, so DATEDIF, YEARFRAC and tenure banding all produce meaningful answers rather than a column of zeros.
The Excel download stores date columns as numeric Excel dates with a date format. CSV and JSON contain ISO date text; convert those fields to dates during import before using date arithmetic or grouping by month.
Look up six employee requests and check every answer
Open the unchanged default 150-row roster with headers in A1:H151. Employee ID is in A, Department in D and Annual Salary in H. Paste the request block into a blank area starting at K1 on the same sheet. Leave L2:M7 empty until you enter your formulas; keep A:H unchanged.
K1Task 1: return Department in L2
=XLOOKUP(K2,$A$2:$A$151,$D$2:$D$151,"Not found",0)Task 2: return Annual Salary in M2
=XLOOKUP(K2,$A$2:$A$151,$H$2:$H$151,"Not found",0)Task 3: exact VLOOKUP alternative for L2
=VLOOKUP(K2,$A$2:$H$151,4,FALSE)Task 3: exact VLOOKUP alternative for M2
=VLOOKUP(K2,$A$2:$H$151,8,FALSE)| Request row | K: Employee ID | L: Department | M: Annual Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | EMP-1149 | Marketing | 65493 |
| 3 | EMP-1000 | Marketing | 145015 |
| 4 | EMP-1074 | Finance | 62042 |
| 5 | EMP-1000 | Marketing | 145015 |
| 6 | EMP-9999 | Not found | Not found |
| 7 | EMP-1049 | Support | 36408 |
If columns are cut off, scroll the table sideways.
| Check | Expected |
|---|---|
| Request rows in K2:K7 | 6 |
| Matched requests | 5 |
| Unique matched employee IDs | 4 |
| Missing requests | 1 |
If columns are cut off, scroll the table sideways.
- Task 1: enter the Department formula in L2. K2 is the request key; keep the source and return ranges locked with dollar signs.
- Task 2: enter the Salary formula in M2, then fill L2:M2 down to L7:M7. Compare all six rows in their original order. Both EMP-1000 requests must remain and return Marketing and 145015.
- Task 3: save your XLOOKUP answers, then use the two exact VLOOKUP alternatives in L2 and M2 and fill to row 7. Employee ID is the first A:H column; Department and Annual Salary are columns 4 and 8. The five matched requests give the same values. For EMP-9999, both VLOOKUP formulas return the #N/A error rather than the text Not found.
- Task 4: explain the missing and repeated requests. EMP-9999 has no record, so do not invent a department or replace its missing salary with zero. Repeating a request is different from a duplicate source ID; keep both EMP-1000 rows.
- These answers match only the unchanged default 150-row roster and the six requests shown. Another row count, data edit or request needs adjusted ranges and new answers.
- XLOOKUP is available in Microsoft 365, Excel 2021 and Excel 2024 for Windows and Mac; Microsoft explicitly excludes Excel 2016 and Excel 2019. Use the exact VLOOKUP alternative on those older releases. English function names and comma separators are shown; localized Excel may need different names or separators.
- The records and salary values are synthetic and have no assigned currency. Keep matched Salary values numeric. When importing CSV or JSON, keep Employee ID as text and Annual Salary as a number; the on-page reference is not a new answer workbook or an automatic score.
Documentation reviewed .
What you can practise with it
- Return a salary for an employee ID with XLOOKUP
- Calculate tenure in years with DATEDIF or YEARFRAC
- Average salary per department with AVERAGEIFS
- Compare missing and repeated employee-ID lookup requests
Try a related exercise
- Add a month to a date without drifting — Adding 30 days looks right until it lands on the 2nd of the wrong month. This is the trap behind every subscription date.
Tools that work on this data
Free to use, share and republish — including commercially. Attribution isn't required, but it's what keeps these free to make, and there's one ready to paste below.
Questions
Is this sample employee data free to use?
Yes — for practice, teaching, demos and commercial work alike. The rows are generated, so there is no personal data in the file. Attribution is not required; if you would like to credit it, there is a ready-made line at the bottom of this page.
Do I have to sign up or give an email address?
No. Direct links download the default-size files without JavaScript. The row-count control builds other supported sizes in your browser. Your spreadsheet contents are not uploaded and no account is involved.
Which formats can I download?
The original dataset is available as Excel (.xlsx), CSV and JSON. All three contain the same source rows, so you can use the CSV for an import exercise and the .xlsx for a formula exercise.
Can I choose how many rows I get?
Yes. The browser control offers 25, 100, 150, 500 data rows, plus a header. Direct source links contain 150 data rows; the preview shows the first ten of those rows.