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Introducing Lookup Functions
1:37 with Tyler TallonThe first Excel feature we’ll review is LOOKUPS. In this video I’ll introduce the VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP functions and discuss when to use them.
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Download the LOOKUPS spreadsheet to follow along. Remember, you'll learn best by doing this with me!
The first Excel feature
we'll review is lookups.
0:00
In this video I'll introduce
the VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP functions and
0:03
discuss when to use them.
0:07
Let's look at an example spreadsheet that
shows median housing rental prices for
0:09
counties in Texas.
0:13
In the first tab, Median Rental $, you can
see we have columns for county, state, and
0:14
then the median price for zero, one, two,
three and four bedroom rental properties.
0:21
On the second tab, Population & Units,
you'll see we have population and
0:27
number of housing units for each county.
0:32
Now what if we wanted to add population
and housing units to the rental price tab?
0:34
If the counties were in the same order on
both tabs, we could just do a copy and
0:39
paste.
0:43
But doing a quick check, it's clear
the counties are not in the same order, so
0:44
we'll need to do a lookup instead.
0:48
Even if the counties are in the same
order, I'd still prefer the lookup method
0:50
here, as you're less likely to make
a mistake using the lookup function.
0:54
In Excel the lookup functions searches for
a value in one column or row and
0:59
then returns a value in the same column or
row.
1:03
In other words,
lookup is a conditional search that
1:07
would return a value based
on the conditions you set.
1:10
There are two different types of lookups,
a VLOOKUP and an HLOOKUP.
1:14
The V in VLOOKUP stands for vertical, so
it will do a search and find in a column.
1:19
And H, in HLOOKUP stands for horizontal,
or a search and find in a row.
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Since our data is organized in columns,
we'd wanna use a VLOOKUP.
1:30
And I'll show you how to
that in the next video
1:34
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