Basic Lookup Function

[Gcook90]

Apologies i'm sure this is really basic - trying to work out a way to lookup:

Sheet 1:
Column A has a list of numbers 1-60
Column B has a list of animals e.g. Dog, Cat - with a different number being a different animal. e.g. 1 = dog, 34 = giraffe.

Sheet 2:
Column A has a list of the numbers (1-60), how do I get it to display what animal it is?

Thank you!

 

[Joe4]

You can use VLOOKUP.

See: VLOOKUP Function

 

[Gcook90]

Thanks Joe.
Have had a look, so it would be VLOOKUP(A1:A60, B1:B60, ??, True)

 

[Joe4]

Thanks Joe.
Have had a look, so it would be VLOOKUP(A1:A60, B1:B60, ??, True)

Note quite.

The first argument should just be a single value - the value you are looking up in that case.
The second argument is the range you are looking up into. It needs at least two columns - the left-most column is the value you are matching on, and the right-most column is the value you want to return.
The third argument relates to the second one. However many columns you have in the second argument, this tells it which one of those columns you want to return.
The fourth argument tells it whether or not to return an approximate match if there is not a perfect match (used most commonly with numbers). If you want an EXACT match only, it should be FALSE.

So, if you want to look up the value for cell A1 from Sheet1, and find it in column A on Sheet2 and return the corresponding value from column B on Sheet2, your would put this formula in cell B1 on Sheet1:

=VLOOKUP(A1,Sheet2!A1:B60,2,FALSE)

Spend some time reading/studying that link I gave you. Everything I mentioned here is explained there in much more detail.

 

[Gcook90]

Thanks - I did work out my mistake - last one is the third argument '2' - that's pulling from the wrong sheet - is there a way to make it pull from the other sheet?

 

[Joe4]

Thanks - I did work out my mistake - last one is the third argument '2' - that's pulling from the wrong sheet - is there a way to make it pull from the other sheet?

No, that is not correct.

The second argument tells you what range you are looking into. Note my last post and the sheet reference in the range.
The third argument just tells it what column in the range in argument two to return.

The formula in the last post I gave you should give you what you need, with some minor adjustments to reflect your actual ranges.
Though note that if you are going to copy it down multiple rows, you will want to lock your lookup range, i.e.

=VLOOKUP(A1,Sheet2!$A$1:$B$60,2,FALSE)

 

[Gcook90]

That worked! Cheers for your help Joe.

 

[Joe4]

You are welcome.