VLOOKUP / HLOOKUP — Excel guide
The classic vertical lookup: find a value in the FIRST column of a table and return something from the same row. Aging but everywhere — every inherited workbook leans on it.
VLOOKUP
Find a value in a table's first column, return a cell from that row.
- Always end with FALSE unless you're doing tier lookups on sorted data — the TRUE default silently returns wrong rows.
- Dollar-lock the table ($A$1:$C$50) before filling down; leave the lookup value relative.
- #N/A on a value you can SEE usually means a trailing space or a number stored as text.
- It can't look LEFT of the lookup column and returns only the FIRST match — reach for XLOOKUP when either bites.
HLOOKUP
VLOOKUP rotated 90° — search a table's top ROW, return from a row beneath.
- Rare in the wild because data is usually vertical — XLOOKUP handles both directions and has retired it.