Functions that help fetch data

1.   "VLOOKUP"
The most sought after and the most used formula for fetching a specific piece of data from a table.

The position of data may be known in advance. But the real value of the function is realized when we let the position of the fetched data vary based on user inputs or values in other cell(s). More on that when we talk about nesting functions. Right now lets look at the basic formula

In layman's terms, this is how the function works:

1. Excel searches for the input value in the first column of the table.
2. If found, the row having this value is noted.
3. The value in this row in the column that is specified in input is now fetched and returned

The formula for vlookup is like this

=vlookup(<lookup_val>,<lookup_arr>,<lookup_col>,<rng_lookup>)

• lookup_val : This the value that we want to find in the first column of the table. This     can be a value that is typed in or it can be reference to another cell that contains a value.
• lookup_arr : This is the table, two dimensional array of cells.
• lookup_col : This is the column from which we want to fetch the data
• rng_lookup : This is a value that determines how the <lookup_val> is searched  for in the first column