Article: Performing two-way lookups using MATCH and INDEX.(Excel)

* Most accountants are comfortable using Excel's VLOOKUP function to look up a value in a table, but performing a two-way lookup (the value where a row and column intersect) is more complex. The solution involves a quirky, flexible, but seemingly useless function: MATCH.

How VLOOKUP Works

VLOOKUP works well for a simple lookup. In Figure 1, for example, a ticker symbol is entered in cell C1, and the VLOOKUP formula in cell D1 returns the company name associated with that symbol:

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

 
  -VLOOKUP(C1,A10:B39,2,FALSE) 

This formula tells Excel to look at the first column of the lookup range and find a match to the ...

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