Question

I am using =IF(VLOOKUP(A2;$B$2:$B$11;B2;FALSE); TRUE; FALSE) to lookup a value in the column A.

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As you can see my formula does not seem valid. Any suggestions why this is the case?

I appreciate your answer!

UPDATE

I am currently getting with =ISNUMBER(VLOOKUP(A2;$B$2:$B$11;1;FALSE)) only FALSE values. However I want to see True if there is a match:

enter image description here

Update

Using =Not(ISNA(VLOOKUP(A2;$B$2:$B$11;1;FALSE))) and =ISNUMBER(MATCH(A2, $B$2:$B$11, 0)) gives me the same result:

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Was it helpful?

Solution

VLOOKUP takes the following arguments:

=VLOOKUP(lookup_value; table_array; col_index_num; [range_lookup])

lookup_value is what will be looked for in the first column of table_array.

table_array is the table in which the lookup_value and the value to be returned are.

col_index_num is the number indicating the nth column within table_array from which the value is to be returned from.

[range_lookup] (defaults to true) indicates the type of lookup, true being approximate and false being exact.

As such, if you want to find if A2 is in table $B$2:$B$11, you need to use a col_index_num of 1.

A simpler formula however would be with MATCH:

=ISNUMBER(MATCH(A2; $B$2:$B$11; 0))

MATCH returns the relative row number in which the value A2 is found. If there is a match, you get a number and hence ISNUMBER returns TRUE.

If you want to check if a value from column B exists in column A, then you have it reversed in the formula you used. Turning it around gives:

=ISNUMBER(MATCH(B2; $A$2:$A$11; 0))

OTHER TIPS

You could also use COUNTIF, i.e. this formula in C2 copied down

=COUNTIF(A$2:A$11,B2)>0

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