VLOOKUP function in Excel - Cell-by-Cell Formula Trace

Sample Data

This table lists products with their IDs, names, and prices. We want to find the product name for the ID 102 using VLOOKUP.

Cell	Value
A1	Product ID
B1	Product Name
C1	Price
A2	101
B2	Apple
C2	0.5
A3	102
B3	Banana
C3	0.3
A4	103
B4	Cherry
C4	0.2
E1	Lookup ID
E2	102
F1	Result

Formula Trace

=VLOOKUP(E2, A2:C4, 2, FALSE)

Step 1: VLOOKUP(102, A2:C4, 2, FALSE)

Step 2: Find 102 in A3

Step 3: Return value from 2nd column in row 3

Cell Reference Map

    A       B         C       D       E       F
1 |Product ID|Product Name|Price |       |Lookup ID|Result
2 |   101   |   Apple   | 0.5   |       |   102   | 
3 |   102   |  Banana   | 0.3   |       |         | 
4 |   103   |  Cherry   | 0.2   |       |         | 

Formula in F2: =VLOOKUP(E2, A2:C4, 2, FALSE)
Arrow: E2 -> lookup value, A2:C4 -> table range, 2 -> column index

The formula uses E2 as the lookup value, searches in the range A2:C4, and returns the value from the 2nd column of the matching row.

Result

    A       B         C       D       E       F
1 |Product ID|Product Name|Price |       |Lookup ID|Result
2 |   101   |   Apple   | 0.5   |       |   102   | Banana
3 |   102   |  Banana   | 0.3   |       |         | 
4 |   103   |  Cherry   | 0.2   |       |         | 

The formula in cell F2 shows 'Banana' because it found the product name for ID 102.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What does the number 2 mean in the formula =VLOOKUP(E2, A2:C4, 2, FALSE)?

A It tells VLOOKUP to look in the 2nd row of the table

B It tells VLOOKUP to return the value from the 2nd column of the table range

C It tells VLOOKUP to look for the number 2 in the table

D It tells VLOOKUP to return the value from the 2nd cell in the sheet

Key Result

VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_range, column_index, FALSE) finds exact match in first column and returns value from specified column.