Approximate vs exact match in Excel - Interactive Practice

Practice - 5 Tasks

1fill in blank

easy

Complete the formula to find the exact match of "Apple" in the range A1:A10.

Excel

=VLOOKUP("Apple", A1:A10, 1, [1])

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

AFALSE

BTRUE

C1

D0

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using TRUE instead of FALSE causes approximate match.

Leaving the last argument empty defaults to approximate match.

Using FALSE in VLOOKUP tells Excel to find an exact match.

2fill in blank

medium

Complete the formula to find the closest match less than or equal to 50 in B1:B10.

Excel

=VLOOKUP(50, B1:B10, 1, [1])

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

ATRUE

BFALSE

C0

D1

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using FALSE causes exact match and may return #N/A if 50 is not found.

Not sorting the lookup range when using TRUE causes wrong results.

Using TRUE enables approximate match, which finds the closest value less than or equal to the lookup value.

3fill in blank

hard

Fix the error in the formula to perform an exact match lookup for "Banana" in C1:D10.

Excel

=VLOOKUP("Banana", C1:D10, 2, [1])

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

ATRUE

B1

CFALSE

D0

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using TRUE causes approximate match and may return incorrect data.

Using 1 instead of FALSE causes approximate match.

FALSE ensures exact match. TRUE or 1 causes approximate match, which may return wrong results or errors.

4fill in blank

hard

Fill both blanks to create a formula that finds the exact match of 100 in E1:F20 and returns the value from the second column.

Excel

=VLOOKUP([1], E1:F20, [2], FALSE)

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

A100

B1

C2

DTRUE

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using TRUE instead of FALSE for exact match.

Using 1 instead of 2 for the column index.

The lookup value is 100, and the column index to return is 2 for the second column.

5fill in blank

hard

Fill all three blanks to create a formula that looks up "Orange" in G1:H15, returns the value from the second column, and uses exact match.

Excel

=VLOOKUP([1], [2], [3], FALSE)

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

A"Orange"

BG1:H15

C2

DTRUE

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using TRUE instead of FALSE for exact match.

Using wrong range or column index.

Lookup value is "Orange", range is G1:H15, column index is 2, and FALSE for exact match.