Please notice that table_array is locked with absolute references ($C$2:$C$9) so that it remains constant when you copy the formula to the below cells.Īs you can see, the names of the qualified athletes show up in column E. The formula goes to cell E2, and then you drag it down through as many cells as there are items in List 1. You want to compare these 2 lists to determine which participants from Group A made their way to the main event. Suppose you have the names of participants in column A (List 1) and the names of those who have passed through the qualification rounds in column B (List 2). For range_lookup (4th argument), set FALSE - exact match.For col_index_num (3rd argument), use 1 as there is just one column in the array.For table_array (2nd argument), supply the entire List 2.For lookup_value (1st argument), use the topmost cell from List 1.To build a VLOOKUP formula in its basic form, this is what you need to do: When you have two columns of data and want to find out which data points from one list exist in the other list, you can use the VLOOKUP function to compare the lists for common values.
#IF STATEMENT TO COMPARE TWO COLUMNS IN EXCEL HOW TO#
How to compare two columns in Excel using VLOOKUP Identify matches and differences between two columns.