How to use VLOOKUP function in MS Excel

Question

I have two sheets Sheet 1

Country PMU             Cluster
A       Asia            Mercury
B       Australia       Venus
C       North America   Jupiter

All the countries and continents are unique here In sheet 2 I have

CountryCode Country  PMU  Cluster
123         A
234         A
453         B
235         C

One country may have several codes. The PMU and Cluster must be combined with Sheet 2; Sheet 2 will include a new column for the country code. Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Here is the formula for cell G2:

    ==VLOOKUP($F2,$A:$C,2,FALSE)

Here is the formula for cell H2:

    =VLOOKUP($F2,$A:$C,3,FALSE)

You can now drag your formulas down to finish. Vlookup formulae are really helpful, and I suggest researching how they work because someone else might be able to describe it better than I can. In essence, you are looking up a value (column F) in an array (columns A, B, C), and if a match is found, you return a column index (B = 2, C = 3, etc.). Last but not least, you are searching for a close (TRUE) or exact (FALSE) match. Apply FALSE almost always.

Additionally, research cell references and how to lock them (including the various $ sign rules). By maintaining the same lookup value and array, you may quickly drag formulas across the page.