Approximate vs exact match in Google Sheets - Interactive Practice

Practice - 5 Tasks

1fill in blank

easy

Complete the formula to perform an exact match using VLOOKUP.

Google Sheets

=VLOOKUP(A2, B2:C10, 2, [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.

Omitting the last argument defaults to approximate match.

Using FALSE in VLOOKUP forces an exact match.

2fill in blank

medium

Complete the formula to perform an approximate match using VLOOKUP.

Google Sheets

=VLOOKUP(A2, B2:C10, 2, [1])

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

AFALSE

B1

CTRUE

D0

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using FALSE causes exact match instead of approximate.

Using 0 or FALSE disables approximate match.

Using TRUE in VLOOKUP enables approximate match.

3fill in blank

hard

Fix the error in the formula to ensure exact match with VLOOKUP.

Google Sheets

=VLOOKUP(A2, B2:C10, 2, [1])

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

AFALSE

BTRUE

C2

D0

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using TRUE causes unexpected approximate matches.

Using numbers other than 0 or 1 causes errors.

The last argument must be FALSE for exact match; TRUE causes approximate match.

4fill in blank

hard

Fill both blanks to create a formula that returns an exact match or "Not found" if no match exists.

Google Sheets

=IFERROR(VLOOKUP(A2, B2:C10, [1], [2]), "Not found")

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

A2

BFALSE

CTRUE

D1

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using TRUE causes approximate match and unexpected results.

Using wrong column index returns wrong data.

Column 2 is the return column, and FALSE ensures exact match. IFERROR handles missing values.

5fill in blank

hard

Fill both blanks to create a formula that performs an approximate match and returns the value from the third column.

Google Sheets

=VLOOKUP(A2, B2:D10, [1], [2])

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

A3

BTRUE

CFALSE

D2

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using FALSE causes exact match instead of approximate.

Using wrong column index returns wrong data.

Column index 3 returns the value from the third column, TRUE enables approximate match.